One of the most powerful and
devastating forces in the world is the emotion of
shame.

Shame is not something I learned about
through research. I didn't read a book or go to a
seminar on the subject. I agonized with its
intensity when as a child I was told I was no
good, stupid, and would never amount to
anything.

When I became a born-again Christian, I
understood from that time on that Jesus died for
my sins, but it was years later when I
understood that He also died for my shame.
Since I no longer carried my sins, then I no

longer needed to carry the shame of my sins or
the shame imposed upon me by others.

Multitudes around the globe are carrying
heavy burdens of shame. Some are ashamed
because of their own sinful conduct. Some
carry shame because it has been imposed upon
them by others who have condemned them.
Still others have inherited a cycle of shameful
behavior or feelings from their parents.

Shame is an emotion that will keep you
forever shackled to the past. It will prevent you
from rising up to fulfill your God-given destiny.

The purpose of this book is to shatter the
shackles of shame that have bound you, your
loved ones, or those to whom you minister.

The shame of divorce, abortion, sexual abuse,
abandonment--the shame of every sinful act you
may have committed or that was committed
against you--you will no longer need to carry it!

This book draws upon the knowledge of
several Christian psychologists regarding the
subject of shame, and while much can be
learned from their wisdom on the subject, it is
only the Word of God that can effect change in
your life.

As John McKenzie notes:

"Analytical psychology...can lay bare where
the roots of man's estrangement lie; but it
cannot offer forgiveness...Psychiatrists have
realized that there are no techniques
whereby they can dissipate real guilt
feelings and their associated shame." [1]

...But don’t despair! The truth of God’s
Word can and will set you free, not only from
sin--but from the shackles of its associated
shame. God did it for me and countless others.
He will do it for you also.

God’s strategy for shattering the shackles
of shame in your life is not psychology, self-improvement, or group therapy. It is divine
revelation. His strategy is based on His Word.
If you follow His plan, you, too, will break your
shackles regardless of the reason for your
shame, the type of shame you bear, or the length
of time that you have been held captive by its
force.

If you pause and listen closely, you may
already hear the sound of your shackles
beginning to break in the spirit world.

-The Author

Chapter One

Shame On You!

What exactly is this potent force called
shame? We find this word often linked with
"guilt" and "guilt and shame" used as if they
were one descriptive term. Both words derive
from similar Old English roots, but there is a
definite difference between the two.

GUILT:

Guilt means “debt” and it is essentially
an emotion resulting from transgression of an
accepted standard by a definite, voluntary act.
It is concerned with doing or lack of doing, sins
of commission or omission--failing to do
something right or doing something you know
to be wrong.

Common sources of guilt include acts of
dishonesty, lying, stealing, selfishness, cheating,
infidelity, and hurting others. Guilt says to your

conscience, "You made a mistake. What you
did was bad."

God-given remorse is actually a positive
emotion that distinguishes us from psychopaths
who commit grievous offenses without
conscience.

SHAME:

Shame, on the other hand, means "to
cover up and to envelop" and it is concerned
with being rather than doing. Shame says, "You
are no good, you are bad, you are inadequate.
Shame on you!"

The Apostle Paul illustrates the
difference between guilt and shame when he
says, "For the good that I will to do, I do not do;
but the evil I will not to do, that I practice" (Romans
7:19). That is guilt emanating from doing.
Then Paul agonizes, "Oh wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
(Romans 7:24). This is a cry of a tormented soul
experiencing the shame of being.

SHAME IS SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY

Shame is more than remorse for an act,
regret, or a feeling of responsibility. It is
internalized disgrace, humiliation, and
degradation. Psychologist John Bradshaw
portrays shame as hopelessness and spiritual
bankruptcy and describes it as:

"A state of being, a core identity.
Shame gives you a sense of
worthlessness, a sense of failing and
falling short as a human being.
Shame is a rupture of the self with
the self. It is like internal
bleeding...An inner torment, a
sickness of the soul. A shame-based
person is haunted by a sense of
absence and emptiness." [1]

"A vague, undefined heaviness that
presses on our spirit, dampens our
gratitude for the goodness of life,
and slackens the free flow of joy.
Shame...seeps into and discolors all
our other feelings, primarily about
ourselves, but about almost everyone
and everything else in our life as
well." [2]

Shame drives you on a hunting
expedition into your past, scrutinizing
everything you have done wrong and building a
case against you like an aggressive prosecutor
in a court of law. Many of you reading these
pages can readily identify with this description
because "court" is in session daily in your own
mind. The prosecutor raises the issues of...

...Your failed marriage.

...That aborted or abandoned child.

...Past criminal or sinful actions.

...A lost opportunity, a word spoken in

anger, or an affirmation withheld in

bitterness.

Relentlessly, the internal interrogation
continues.

Guilt leads to godly sorrow which results
in confessing and repenting of wrong doing.
Paul explains that the Old Testament law was
designed for this purpose:

Now we know that whatever the law
says, it says to those who are under
the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law no
flesh will be justified in His sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin.
(Romans 3:19-20)

James explains that whoever keeps the
whole law and yet offends in one point is guilty
of all (James 2:10). Such overwhelming guilt
was designed by God to direct us to Jesus
Christ...

...Whom God set forth as a
propitiation by His blood, through
faith, to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His
forbearance God had passed over
the sins that were previously
committed...Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith apart
from the deeds of the law.

(Romans 3:25, 28)

Guilt produces godly sorrow which leads
to repentance which results in salvation:

For godly sorrow produces
repentance leading to salvation, not
to be regretted; but the sorrow of the
world produces death.

(2 Corinthians 7:10)

The "sorrow of the world" is shame
because, left unresolved, it leads to death. Dr.
Paul Tournier explains that shame is negative if
denied and guilt is positive if acknowledged and
confessed:

"It is abundantly clear that no man
lives free of guilt. Guilt is universal.
But according as it is repressed or
recognized, so it sets in motion one
of two contradictory processes;
repressed, it leads to anger,
rebellion, fear, and anxiety, a
deadening of conscience, an
increasing inability to recognize
one's faults, and a growing
dominance of aggressive tendencies.

But consciously recognized, it leads to
repentance, to the peace and security of
divine pardon..." [3]

THE SEQUENCE OF SHAME

Shame is associated with the loss of
respect by others and the eradication of self-respect. It prohibits intimacy with God because
we feel unworthy. Unlike guilt, which is
resolved by confession and repentance, shame
becomes an identity.

Shame--as distinct from constructive
sorrow--is the devil's strategy. For centuries,
many have thought shame was the voice of God
speaking to their conscience. But the Bible
clearly identifies Satan as the accuser of
believers and confirms that he is continually
active in this commission (Revelation 12:10).

Godly sorrow leads to repentance, but
shame produces misery, discouragement, and
emotional pain. Constructive sorrow produces a
positive change in behavior and once change is
made by reconciliation with God and others, the
constructive sorrow of guilt vanishes because its
purpose is accomplished. The devil's shameful
accusations remain, however, even after
forgiveness has been sought and received. Such
torment haunts the souls of some believers who
have walked for 20, 30, or 40 years with the
Lord. They simply cannot forget the shame of
their past and as Thomas Oden notes:

"The trail of guilt becomes more
difficult to track when our footsteps
are blurred by the winds and wash of
time. Eventually guilt is not directed
toward a specific deed at all, but
only generally toward `the past'."
[4]

Shame torments you internally through
your conscience and externally through
condemnation by others. Shame moves into
your life and establishes a base of operations
resulting in what some psychologists call "a
shame-based" personality, meaning that every
facet of your person is affected by shame’s
deadly poison.

HOW SHAME ORIGINATED

Shame was not a natural emotion given
to mankind by his Creator. God created Adam
and Eve as innocent beings and placed them in
the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden.
They had abundant provision and access to all
the trees and fruits of the garden except one.
Adam and Eve were warned not to eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if
they did they would die. The couple did not
heed this admonition and their transgression
resulted in a continuing cycle of sin being
passed down through subsequent ages.

Man's first transgression stemmed from a
desire to be other than God created us, to be
more than human. It is in the context of this
original sin that men first encountered shame.
When Adam and Eve were created, they were
both naked and were not ashamed (Genesis
2:25), but after they ate the forbidden fruit...

...the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they knew that they were
naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves
coverings. (Genesis 3:7)

That evening God came for His regular
time of fellowship with the couple:

And they heard the sound of the Lord God

walking in the garden in the cool

of the day, and Adam and his wife hid

themselves from the presence of the

Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam

and said to him, "Where are you?" So he
said, "I heard Your voice in the

garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked; and I hid myself." And He said,

"Who told you that you were naked...?"
(Genesis 3:8-11)

This record confirms what psychologists
now recognize, that...

"Exposure of one’s self lies at the
heart of shame. A shame-based
person will guard against exposing
his inner self to others, but more
significantly, he will guard against
exposing himself to himself." [5]

Cowering, hiding, covering...Adam and
Eve experienced an emotion that was new to
them: SHAME.

∙They ran...but you cannot outrun
the accusations of shame.

∙They hid...but there is no refuge
from shame.

∙They created a covering of
fig leaves...but there is no
man-made covering that
will conceal shame.

Three basic human relationships were
ripped apart through sin, creating the base from
which all shame operates: The relationships of
man with God, man with himself, and man with
others.

With the lethal force of a deadly riptide,
Adam and Eve were caught in the swirling
spiral of shame.

Chapter Two

The Spiral Of Shame

The shame that originated in the Garden
of Eden has spiraled down through the centuries
much like an uncontrolled aircraft caught in a
powerful wind shear. Its continued revolutions
generate a myriad of shame-based reactions
which are triggered by words, sounds, feelings,
and even tastes and smells. Psychologist John
Bradshaw explains:

"The sensory perception is our first
and most immediate way of
knowing...Every thought we think
was first perceived, seen, heard,
touched, tasted, or smelled. ...When
shame has become internalized,
these images are often triggered and
send the shame-based person into
shame spirals." [1]

A word, a smell, the lyrics of a song, and
other similar sensory images trigger the shame
associated with painful memories, resulting in a
downward spiral of shame-based thoughts and
reactions.

SHAME-BASED THINKING

When shame establishes control in your
life, it programs your internal faculties to think
in terms of "shame-based thinking." This
distorted reasoning may include any or all of the
following:

PARANOIA:

Shame whispers, "You can tell they don't
like you. You don't fit in. They think you aren't
good enough." This makes you paranoid--constantly interpreting events as personally
threatening. It also creates expectations of
ultimate betrayal by friends.

PERSONALIZATION:

Shame-based people relate everything to
themselves. When your mate says he is tired,
shame says "Yeah...he is tired of you...that's the
problem!" Shame causes you to constantly
compare yourself to others and, when you seem
to fall short, this generates more shame.

GENERALIZATION:

Shame distorts your thinking. One
mistake means, "I'll never learn how to do this."
Generalization leads to declarations such as
"Why can't I ever get it right? No one cares
about me." This results in "either/or" thinking.
If you are not brilliant, then you must be stupid.
There is no middle ground. Words like "all,
everyone, no one, always" signal such shame-based generalization. Shame-based mentality
views a simple misdemeanor as a capital
offense.

Professor Lewis Smedes provides insight
into why shame-based people magnify their
flaws. They do it...

"...Mainly because early on
they...were permitted to know only
their flaws... Nothing good or true
or beautiful about them was worth
noticing. No smudge was too small
to ignore. The least of their

weaknesses outweighed the greatest of their
strengths." [2]

RATIONALIZATION:

A shame-based person constantly
rationalizes their behavior. They excuse,
explain, and justify so they do not have to deal
with their shame. On the other hand, they may
also do good works to try to neutralize their
shame and rationalize that they aren’t such a
bad person.

REPRESSION:

Another attempt to deal with shame is
repressing or denying the incidents that
produced it. King David learned that this
doesn't work too well. He said:

“When I kept silent, my bones grew
old, Through my groaning all the
day long. For day and night, Your
hand was heavy upon me...”

(Psalms 32:3-4)

Denial leads to the submersion of terrible
secrets:

"For example, a mother knows that
her husband is abusing her daughter,
but she chooses not to know. What
he is doing is so shameful that...she
lies to herself and denies that she is
lying--all in order to escape the
shame of the horror that is
happening inside her lovely family."
[3]

CONDEMNATION:

Shame's voice replays repeatedly in your
mind like an old record stuck in a groove. It
says, "You should have done this...You ought to
have done that." Phrases like " I should have"
and "if I'd only" are signals of shame's
accusations.

Condemnation is different from the
conviction of the Holy Spirit. Conviction is
specific, focusing on a particular sin and
eliciting godly sorrow which leads to confession
and repentance. Condemnation is generalized.
It declares you convicted, censured, and
hopeless without remedy. Jesus declared:

“For God did not send His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be
saved. He who believes in Him is
not condemned...” (John 3:17-18)

HELPLESSNESS:

Shame declares you a victim of
circumstances. You view yourself as controlled
by other people, your hopeless addictions, bad
luck, or fate. You mentally surrender to this
helplessness and accept a shamed existence as
your destiny.

A SHAME-BASED CONSCIENCE:

Some people attempt to deal with shame
by letting "conscience be their guide," as the
old saying goes. They allow themselves to be
governed by a set of internal morals, principles,
and standards.

This is dangerous because your
conscience is influenced by society, education,
your parents, and peers--and these influences
can all be wrong. They may condone lying,
stealing, cheating, and even killing, resulting in
a conscience that is shameless. The Bible
speaks of a "weak conscience" (1 Corinthians
8:12), a "defiled conscience" (Titus 1:15) and of
those whose conscience is "seared with a hot
iron" so that they no longer experience guilt (1
Timothy 4:2). The forces of society, training,
parents, and peers, can also create a "shame-
based" conscience by constantly reinforcing that
you are a bad person.

You cannot trust an unregenerate
conscience to "be your guide" because it is
nourished by environment and experience
instead of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul
described this struggle:

For what I am doing, I do not
understand. For what I will to do,
that I do not practice; but what I
hate, that I do...For the good that I
will to do, I do not do; but the evil I
will not to do, that I practice.
(Romans 7:15,19)

Only through the blood of Jesus can a shameful
conscience be absolved:

Let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil

conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. (Hebrews 10:22)

SHAME-BASED REACTIONS

Shame-based reactions are implemented
to avoid dealing with the root issue of shame.
We disguise and distort our shame and cloak it
in new vocabulary until we often do not
recognize these responses as protective devices
designed to avoid self-confrontation. Here are
some common shame-based reactions:

SCAPEGOATING:

The term "scapegoating" comes from an
Old Testament practice involving the blood
sacrifice for sin. Leviticus 16 describes how the
High Priest of Israel selected and sacrificed
animals for the sin offering. At the climax of
the ceremony he laid his hands on the head of a
live goat, confessed all the iniquities of Israel
over it, and the animal was then led away into
the wilderness symbolically bearing the sins of
the people. Through this practice the word
"scapegoating" entered our vocabulary as a
method of avoiding shame or guilt by projecting
it onto someone or something else.

Blame is a cover up for shame and a way
to pass it on to others. You reduce your own
feelings of shame by putting down and
criticizing someone else. Carl Nelson observes:

"Psychologically, putting guilt on
someone else allows us the
opportunity to hate or blame that
individual, thus discharging our
emotions while our rational
faculties justify it. It is a strange
procedure, but one of our oldest
strategies." [4]

Old indeed, for it actually began in the Garden
when Adam blamed his sin on "the woman You
gave me" (Genesis 3:12). In blaming our God-given circumstances, environment, or
relationships, we are in reality saying that the
blame rests with God. As Narramore observes:

"Each time we do this, we deny our
own responsibilities and
failings...and instead of resolving
our problem, we burrow deeper into
a rut of self-deception and character
stagnation." [5]

PERFECTIONISM:

Because shame portrays you as inferior,
you may constantly attempt to prove your worth
by being a perfectionist. You must always be
right, there is no room for mistakes, you cover
up your own errors, and critically shame others
who blunder.

Perfectionism goes far beyond simple
excellence or pride in performance. It is a
driving, controlling force and no matter how
hard you try you never quite measure up to the
standards you set. Because of this
predisposition to failure, perfectionism fosters
additional shame and leads to judging,
moralizing, and criticizing others who fall short
of your arbitrary standards.

You can become so preoccupied with
perfectionism that you miss the positive benefits
generated by mistakes. As John Bradshaw
notes:

"Mistakes are a form of feedback.
Every error tells us what we need to

correct...You become so preoccupied with
defending yourself against the

inner critical voices that you miss the
opportunity to heed the warning of

the mistake." [6]

SELF-PUNISHMENT:

There is a long history of people who
mutilated their bodies or in other ways punished
themselves to atone for their shame.

In its more subtle forms, such self-punishment is the voice of shame saying, "You
don't deserve to be happy." In its acute stage,
self-punishment ends in suicide when the
internal voice of shame becomes so loud that all
voices of hope are drowned out and the only
answer to your pain is to end it all. Some of
you reading these pages may be at this point
right now. If you are--please--do not act on the
destructive suggestions of the voice of shame.
Before you finish the final page of this study,
you will be delivered from your shame.

Self-punishment stemming from shame
actually causes neurotic illness:

"When guilt has been pushed into the
distorted forms of repressed memory
(such as shame), it may return
through the back door disguised as
asthma, migraine headaches, peptic
ulcers, and other psychosomatic
illnesses. We punish ourselves, so to
speak, with physical pain." [7]

DEFENSIVENESS:

Defensive people are extremely sensitive
to criticism or the suggestion of personal blame,
they are argumentative, and always must be
right. Shame-based people interpret criticism of
what they do into a judgment of who they are.
They confuse their do and who.

A defensive person tries to exonerate
himself because if he cannot do so then he is
forced to admit his own inadequacies. Instead
of confronting his shame and dealing with it, he
constantly defends his actions, position, and
reasoning:

"Our shame defenses keep us from
showing ourselves to anyone else.
More tragically, these defenses keep
us from looking at ourselves." [8]

PATRONIZING:

Patronizing is a very subtle way of
deferring your shame. On the surface, you seem
to help another person by support and
encouragement, but in reality you have a
condescending attitude which defers your own
shame by shaming them.

CONTROLLING:

A shame-based person attempts to
control other people’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions to insure that no one can ever shame
him again. In many families this control results
in suppression of true feelings. There is no
honest feedback, emotional growth is hindered,
and shame is further perpetrated.

In its extreme form, such control results
in physical and emotional abuse, for if you are
an abuser then those you abuse have no power
to shame you. This may be one reason many
who are abused as children later become
abusive parents:

"Parents who physically humiliate
and abuse their own children were
typically abused when they were
young. They have never resolved the
internalized shame in their own
lives." [9]

ARROGANT SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS:

Arrogance is a psychological cover up
for shame. The arrogant, self-righteous person
hides his true self from others and in so doing,
hides from himself.

The Old Testament story of Abner and
Saul's son, Ishbosheth, illustrates this arrogant,
self-righteous, self-justifying shame-based
response. Abner initially took King Saul's side
in his conflict with David, but when it was
evident that David was growing stronger and
Saul correspondingly weaker, Abner's status (as
well as his life) was jeopardized (2 Samuel 2-4).

Abner's dealings with Saul's concubines
and resources were sinful and as Saul's fortunes
declined, Ishbosheth, Saul's heir, confronted
Abner. Ishbosheth hardly began his reprimand
when Abner blazed forth at him with
chagrining accusations. By arrogantly branding
Ishbosheth as a criminal, Abner justified his
own sinful conduct as well as his disloyal desire
to switch to David's side in the conflict.

The Pharisees and Sadducees of New
Testament times exemplified similar self-righteousness. They gave, prayed, and fasted to
be seen of men and demanded that others abide
by their oppressive standards. "I thank you that
I am not as this poor sinner," said one proud
Pharisee who witnessed a poor sinner's prayer.
His arrogance cloaked his own guilt and shame
in a disguise of religious self-righteousness.

ADDICTIONS:

Psychologist John Bradshaw views
shame as the core and fuel for all addictive
behavior. He comments:

"The content of the addiction,
whether it be an ingestive addiction
or an activity addiction (like work,
buying, or gambling) is an attempt at
an intimate relationship...Each
addictive acting out creates life-damaging consequences which
create more shame. The new shame
fuels the cycle of addiction." [10]

AGGRESSION:

Because a shame-based person does not
value himself, he lacks respect for others. This
leads to contempt, anger, retaliation, and rage.
If a person with internalized aggression also
acquires power, then it results in violence and
criminal behavior. Bradshaw comments:

"While no one can or has proven that
every criminal is acting out his own
shame, I believe there is enough data
to support the hypothesis that this is
most often the case. Surely no one
has offered any other solution to the
everlasting problem of crime and
criminality. Without any doubt,
criminals feel like social outcasts
and bear enormous shame." [11]

ALIENATION AND DISASSOCIATION:

A shame-based person sometimes will
alienate himself by self-imposed isolation. Such
behavior may be disguised by explanations such
as "I am very reserved" or "I am a private
person." In reality, the withdrawal is an attempt
to conceal shame. In its ultimate form, such
alienation results in living life as a recluse from
society.

RITUAL:

In New Testament times the Pharisees
and Sadducees learned they could not keep the
law of God themselves, so they became self-righteous, demanding, critical leaders. They
formulated hundreds of detailed rules which
they tacked on to their religion.

Their rituals emanated from the shame-base of their own failures as evidenced in the
story of the woman caught in adultery. They
brought her to Jesus, quoting their law that
prescribed she should die for her sin. We find
them quietly slinking away when Jesus said,
"Let him without sin cast the first stone.

The religious rituals of the Pharisees and
Sadducees were attempts to conceal their own
shame but, as God's Word declares, there are
no gifts, sacrifices, or rituals that can rid the
conscience of the shame of sin. These things
were "symbolic for the present time in which both
gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make
him who performed the service perfect in regard to
the conscience" (Hebrews 9:9).

THE POWER OF SHAME

We have examined the definition, origin,
and the downward spiral of shame-based
thinking and responses. We are now ready to
examine the tremendous power this negative
emotion of shame exerts over our lives.

As we have learned in this chapter,
shame affects us all. It motivates the
perfectionist, fuels the aggressor, and entombs
the alienated in emotional isolation. People try
many ways to escape shame, but shame-based
thinking and responses are like a Band-Aid
covering a festering, infected sore. The Band-Aid has no healing power and, if the wound is
not treated, gangrene will eventually spread its
toxic poison throughout the entire system.
Lewis Sherrill notes:

"We do not get rid of it (shame)
merely by failing to recognize its
existence or by misunderstanding its
nature. It continues to be one of the
common experiences, perhaps not of

all persons, but certainly of many. By some
it is overpoweringly felt, by others it is
carefully hidden..." [12]

The power of shame is manifested in five
areas in our lives:

1.Inherited shame results
from the basic sin nature
which we all receive at
birth due to the original
transgression of man in the
Garden of Eden.

2.Individual shame results
from sins you personally
commit.

3.Incessant shame refers to the
continuous cycle of shame
manifested from generation to
generation. If you do not deal
with shame successfully, then you
pass it on to your children and
they duplicate it by passing it on
to the next generation.

4.Imposed shame is inflicted upon
you by others who put you down
and tell you that you are stupid or
not good enough.

5.Institutional shame comes through
the institutions of society. You
may be shamed because of the
color of your skin, your family
background, or the city or nation
in which you live.[13]

In the next five chapters we will examine
each of these manifestations of shame in detail
so you will better understand how these
strongholds are established. In the remaining
chapters of the book, you will learn how to
shatter these shackles in your life and the lives
of those to whom you minister.

Chapter Three

Inherited Shame

Shame shackles you to the past. It erects
a spiritual partition between you and God and
until you learn how to break through this
barrier, you will continue to struggle with
unresolved issues in your life:

∙You will never feel good enough
to approach God in prayer.

∙You will never be able to
put the past behind you and
as long as you live in the
past you will never have a
future.

∙You will never rise up to
fulfill your destiny in God.

The levels of shame that shroud us are
multilayered, much like an onion's skin. The
first level of shame with which we must deal is
inherited shame. In subsequent chapters we will
examine individual, incessant, imposed, and
institutional shame.

THE SHAME YOU INHERITED

Inherited shame results from the basic sin
nature we all receive at birth due to the original
transgression of man in the Garden of Eden.
Prior to their original sin, Adam and Eve were
sinless and knew no shame:

And they were both naked, the man
and his wife, and were not ashamed.
(Genesis 2:25)

Living in an exquisite garden, Adam and
Eve had permission from God to eat of every
tree except one: The tree of knowledge of good
and evil. Into this pristine environment
slithered the serpent, Satan, who challenged:

"...Has God indeed said, `You shall
not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
And the woman said to the serpent,
"We may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden; but of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said, `You shall not
eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you
die.'" And the serpent said to the
woman, "You will not surely die.
For God knows that in the day you
eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil." (Genesis 3:1-3)

The appeal of the enemy was "you shall
be like God," indicating that Eve somehow was
not living up to her potential. The temptation
was to be better, to know more, to reach some
illusive standard of perfection--but it led to
iniquity which generated shame.

Once activated, shame has a ripple effect
like a stone shattering the placid calm of a quiet
pool. The one who is shamed (in this case, Eve)
draws others into their shame--and so we find
Adam yielding to the same temptation. The
spiral of shame-related responses and shame-based thinking discussed in the last chapter
affects not only the individual who is shamed,
but all those related to him whether by blood or
acquaintance. If you do not deal with shame,
you will lure others into its cess pool--your
children, your mate, your friends--because
shame begets shame.

HIDING IN SHAME

Immediately after their transgression, we
find Adam and Eve experiencing the shame of
their act, covering their nakedness with fig
leaves, and hiding from the presence of the
Lord:

Then the Lord God called to Adam
and said to him, "Where are you?"
So he (Adam) said, "I heard Your
voice in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked; and I hid
myself." (Genesis 3:9-10)

Why was Adam afraid? Why did he
hide? Because he was naked and ashamed.
Shame generated fear and led to alienation,
withdrawal, and cover-up. From shame came
blame--"the woman gave me of the tree" and
"the serpent deceived me and I ate." The spiral
of shame-based thinking and responses was
activated.

God's question to you today is the same
as it was to Adam and Eve: "Where are you?"
Are you alienated from Him by your shame,
cowering in humiliation, fearful to come into
His presence, and blaming others for your
condition?

SHAME WAS PASSED ON

Man's original transgression created a
sinful nature that was transmitted to succeeding
generations resulting in the sad reality that "all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
(Romans 3:23). We all inherit this basic sin
nature and its propensity to catapult us into the
spiral of sin and shame:

Therefore, just as through one man
sin entered the world, and death
through sin, and thus death spread to
all men, because all sinned.
(Romans 5:12)

This means all of us must deal with the
inherited shame of this basic sin nature which is
sometimes called the "flesh" or the "old man."
The flesh entices us to sinful acts which
generate more shame. The Apostle Paul wrote
of the resulting dilemma:

For I know that in me (that is, in my
flesh) nothing good dwells, for to
will is present with me, but how to
perform what is good I do not find.
For the good that I will to do, I do
not do; but the evil I will not to do,
that I practice. (Romans 7:18-19)

Paul said it was sin living in him that
kept him in bondage (Romans 7:20). But we
cannot simply blame sin for our struggles and
go merrily on our way in life because God holds
us responsible for sin: "The soul who sins shall
die" (Ezekiel 18:20).

This responsibility for sin, left
unresolved, generates even more shame when
we realize that...

...the carnal mind is enmity against
God; for it is not subject to the law
of God, nor indeed can be. So then,
those who are in the flesh cannot
please God. (Romans 8:7-8)

The inherited sin nature gives birth to the
works of the flesh listed in Galatians:

Now the works of the flesh are
evident, which are: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of
wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries, and the like;
of which I tell you beforehand, just
as I also told you in time past, that
those who practice such things will
not inherit the kingdom of God.
(Galatians 5:19-21)

These sins emanate from the inherent sin
nature, each generates more shame, and so the
cycle continues. It seems to be an impossible
dilemma because...

...the flesh lusts against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh; and
these are contrary to one another, so
that you do not do the things that you
wish. (Galatians 5:17)

Paul's description of this sin nature in
Romans and Galatians portrays a tremendously
powerful negative force. It is evident in
Romans chapter 7 that he is testifying from first
hand experience because of his repeated use of
the word "I." Talk about shame-based
declarations! "For I know that in me (that is, in
my flesh) nothing good dwells," said Paul. "O
wretched man that I am," he cried. The word
"wretched" denotes the exhausting struggle in
which he engaged. He realized that although
the fault lay in the corruption of his nature, it
was not an excuse for the guilt and shame of his
sin. Finally Paul cried out, "Who will deliver me
from this body of death?"

Perhaps you are making similar shame-based declarations...

..."I just can't seem to change."

..."I've always been like this."

..."I am a wretched, evil person."

And perhaps--like Paul--you are crying
out, "Who can deliver me? How can I be free of
the shame I have carried for years?"

"HEY, PAUL...WHAT HAPPENED?"

The major portion of Romans 7 paints a
dismal picture, yet we find Romans 8 starting
with a powerful proclamation that there is no
more condemnation:

There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus... (Romans 8:1)

As Matthew Henry notes:

"He does not say, `There is no
accusation,' for there is; but the
accusation is thrown out and the
indictment squashed. He does not
say `There is nothing that deserves
condemnation,’ for there is...But (he
says) there is no condemnation
against him." [1]

Romans chapter 8 concludes with Paul's
declaration that there is no separation from
God's love:

For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, nor any other
created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:38-39)

Paul proclaims that there is no depth of
disgrace--no shame in this life or the one to
come, no person or power--that can separate
him from God.

How can this man possibly declare "no
condemnation" and "no separation" from God?
Isn't this the same guy that wrote of his internal
struggles in Romans chapter 7, calling himself a
"wretched" man who was no good?

Later we find Paul recalling his life and
dramatic conversion. He said:

"I persecuted this Way to the death,
binding and delivering into prisons
both men and women, as also the
high priest bears me witness, and all
the council of the elders, from whom
I also received letters to the
brethren, and went to Damascus to
bring in chains even those who were
there to Jerusalem to be punished.
And when the blood of Your martyr
Stephen was shed, I also was
standing by consenting to his death
and guarding the clothes of those
who were killing him."

(Acts 22:4,5,20)

How can the same man who did these
things shamelessly say, "There is no more
condemnation? I am no longer separated from
God's love!"

We also find Paul declaring to the chief
priests and the Jerusalem council:

"...Men and brethren, I have lived in
all good conscience before God until
this day." (Acts 23:1)

"Hey, wait a minute Paul," we say.
"What about all those people you persecuted
and put in prison? You stood there and did
nothing when they were killing Stephen. You
were consenting to his death. How can you say
that you have a good conscience before God?"

Paul recalls the facts of his sin but the
feelings of shame are gone. What made the
difference between his struggle in Romans 7
and the victorious declarations of Romans
chapter 8? What happened that enabled this
man, having just admitted his sins, in the next
breath to shamelessly declare, "I have lived in
good conscience before God?"

How did Paul overcome the shame of
what he had done? We must learn his secret.
We must find out what effected this great
victory in his life, for in so doing we, too, can
be freed from our own inherent shame.

Chapter Four

Individual Shame

Individual shame--as well as imposed,
institutional, and incessant shame--is rooted in
the inherited shame nature we discussed in the
last chapter. Individual shame, however, is
activated by sins you personally commit.

The Bible itemizes specific shame-generators including pride (Proverbs 11:2),
refusing correction (Proverbs 13:18), lack of
discipline (Proverbs 19:26), hasty, uninformed
decisions (Proverbs 18:13), forsaking God
(Jeremiah 17:13), and iniquity (Ezekiel 43:10;
Proverbs 13:5)--the latter of which is inclusive
of all sinful acts. The guilt and condemnation
generated by such sins result in shame if there is
no resolution through confession and
repentance.

Shame alienates you from God, others,
and self. Individual shame is the most difficult
type of shame to deal with, for it is hard to
forgive yourself for sins, mistakes, and bad
decisions. This is graphically illustrated by the
following quotation from a prison inmate
describing her shame:

"I could hide my sins from everyone
but myself. No physical torments
can match the torments of an
accusing conscience. An accusing
conscience means hell on earth. No
earthly wealth, human love, music,
fun or intoxication can dispel or
comfort the agony of its gnawing
teeth. My sins were finding me out. I
was suffering for every sin I had ever
committed. Sin was breeding a
moral ulcer. A diseased character is
worse than a diseased body. My
character was suffering. I could not
escape my sin."

A SEASON OF SHAME

The Old Testament account of King
David's sin with Bathsheba illustrates the
powerful force of individual shame. David's
season of shame began when he was well on his
way to fulfilling his God-appointed destiny in
life. David had survived the trying years of
exile and now reigned as King of Israel. As
Ivor Powell notes:

"David's career was at an all-time
high. Fresh from a series of
victories in battle, he had reached
the peak of public admiration. He
enjoyed an endless supply of money,
power, and fame. Never are we
more vulnerable than when we have
it all, and David was no exception."
[1]

One afternoon, David arose from a nap to
walk on the roof of the palace where the cool
breezes offered relief from the heat of the day.
David actually should not have been relaxing in
the luxury and ease of the palace, for Israel was
at war and it was the duty of kings to lead the
battle. Matthew Henry comments:

"Had he been now at his post at the
head of his forces, he would have
been out of the way of this
temptation. When we are out of the
way of our duty we are in the way of
temptation." [2]

From the palace roof, David saw a
beautiful young woman bathing. This pause in
the way of temptation, like that of Eve on the
path winding by the tree of knowledge, plunged
David into the devastating cycle of sin and
shame.

Despite the fact that Bathsheba was
another man's wife, David brought her to the
palace and had intimate relations with her. A
short time later, Bathsheba sent word to David
that she had conceived a child from their
adulterous union.

The news that Bathsheba was pregnant
panicked David. Her husband, Uriah, was one
of David's mighty men and a national hero (2
Samuel 23:39). As Matthew Henry notes:

"Uriah...was a person of honor and
virtue, one that was now abroad in
his service, hazarding his life in the
high places of the field for the honor
and safety of him and his kingdom,
where he himself should have been."
[3]

David also knew that, according to the law, he
and Bathsheba deserved death by stoning.

Trying to conceal his sin, David sent for
Uriah to come back to Jerusalem and bring
news of the battle. David wined and dined
Uriah and encouraged him to spend the night
with Bathsheba, but Uriah refused this pleasure.
He said:

"The ark and Israel and Judah are
dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab
and the servants of my lord are
encamped in open fields. Shall I then
go to my house to eat and drink, and
to lie with my wife? As you live, and
as your soul lives, I will not do this
thing." (2 Samuel 11:11)

Manipulation having failed, David
conceived an even more diabolical plan. He
sent orders to the commander of the army to set
Uriah in the front of the hottest battle and then
abandon him to the enemy. Matthew Henry
comments:

"He sent the letter by Uriah
himself...nothing could be more base
and barbarous than to make him an
accessory to his own death." [4]

One sin has led to another in David's life.
First there was transgression, then manipulation,
and now murder. Chuck Swindoll warns:

"Playing with sin is playing with fire.
If you don't snuff out temptation
when it first sparks in your mind, the
fire may burn out of control. What
started as a lustful thought in
David's mind spread to adultery,
which spread to deception, which
culminated in murder...Take
temptation seriously. Stop sin before
it ever starts." [5]

After Uriah was killed in battle and
Bathsheba properly mourned his death, David
sent for her and she became his wife.

It appeared for a while that David got
away with adultery and murder, but the Bible
records that "the thing David had done
displeased the Lord." You may think you get
away with sin, but you really don't and--for
sure--as long as you do not deal with your sin
you will never eliminate its associated shame.
Psalms 32 describes David's shame in this
unrepentant state:

When I kept silent, my bones grew
old, Through my groaning all the
day long. For day and night Your
hand was heavy upon me; My vitality
was turned into the drought of
summer. (Psalms 32:3-4)

David was depressed, guilty, and even
suffered physical effects from his shame. Did
you know that physical illnesses can be
perpetuated by negative emotions like shame?

The spirit of a man will sustain him
in sickness, But who can bear a
broken spirit? (Proverbs 18:14)

When you are sick, a peaceful, settled
spirit will sustain you during your illness and
aid recovery. A spirit broken by shame (or
other emotions like bitterness, anger,
unforgiveness, etc.), will hinder your recovery.

God's convicting power was at work in
David, for he acknowledges that the Lord’s
hand was "heavy upon me," but David's
deception and lack of repentance produced the
internal misery of shame.

THOU ART THE MAN!

Several months after David's sin, the
Prophet Nathan came knocking at the palace
door:

"Notice that God didn't send Nathan
to confront David immediately after
he committed adultery--or even after
the murder. He doesn't always settle
up with us in the springtime of our
sin. Often, He waits until we've
experienced a barren winter in our
souls." [6]

Nathan used a parable to expose David's
unconfessed sin. It was a moving story of a
poor man who had one lamb raised as a beloved
pet and a rich man with many flocks and herds.
When a traveler came to visit the rich man, he
refused to kill his own animals to prepare
dinner, but instead slaughtered the lamb that
was dearly loved by the poor man.

This parable aroused David's anger and
he said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who
has done this shall surely die!" (2 Samuel 12:5). A
poignant hush fell over the throne room as
Nathan said to David:

"...You are the man! Thus says the
Lord of Israel; I anointed you king
over Israel, and I delivered you from
the hand of Saul. I gave you your
master's house and your master's
wives...the house of Israel and
Judah. And if that had been too
little, I also would have given you
much more! Why have you despised
the commandment of the Lord, to do
evil in His sight? You have killed
Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you
have taken his wife to be your
wife"... (2 Samuel 12:7-9)

Talk about shameful accusations!
Nathan declared...

...You have despised the commandment

of the Lord.

...You have done evil.

...You have killed.

...You have taken another man's wife.

Here is David, who as a lad killed a giant
on the battlefield, but as a king failed in the
confrontation with the giant of lust. The warrior
who slew thousands of enemy forces is now
taken captive by sin. Here is the "man after
God's own heart," the sweet psalmist of Israel,
with shameful accusations reverberating down
the halls of his palace. He cannot blame his
inherited sin nature and go on his way. He
cannot blame another person or circumstances
for his shame, because God said, "Thou art the
man!"

In the last chapter we left the Apostle
Paul crying out from his inherited shame, "Oh
wretched man that I am!" Now we leave David
with God's hand heavy upon him, his vitality
gone, and his soul groaning from the effects of
his individual shame.

Is there any hope for release from the
shame that binds us?

Chapter Five

Incessant Shame

In previous chapters we exposed the
problems of inherited and individual shame.
This chapter concerns incessant shame, which is
the continuous cycle of shame manifested
perpetually from generation to generation.

Shame is essentially fostered in
significant relationships because if you do not
respect or value someone you usually cannot be
shamed by them. John Bradshaw explains how
shame is perpetuated within a family:

"When children have shame-based
parents, they identify with them.
This is the first step in the child's
internalizing shame." [1]

Psychologists have come to realize that
shame-based parents act shamelessly and pass
their shame on to their children because "There
is no way to teach self-value if one does not value
oneself." [2]

If you do not deal with your shame, you
pass it on to your children and they will pass it
to their children. Shame then becomes multi-generational, meaning it is firmly entrenched
within the family and passed from one
generation to the next. Bradshaw explains the
continuing cycle:

"Shame-based people find other
shame-based people and get
married. As a couple each carries
the shame from his or her own family
system, their marriage will be
grounded in their shame-core." [3]

Shame results in a lack of intimacy in
marriage because it is difficult to maintain close
relationships when you feel defective and
flawed. The results of this shame-based union
are detailed by Bradshaw:

"Heredity" is the term given to the means
by which living organisms reproduce after their
kind. The word "heredity" concerns the
presence or absence of certain characteristics
including physical, emotional, and personality
traits that are passed from one generation to
another.

It is evident that physical problems are
transmitted from generation to generation
through heredity. Secular insurance companies
and doctors know this and this is why they ask,
"Is there a history of heart disease in your
family? Is there diabetes or high blood
pressure?"

While doctors, psychologists, and
scientists recognize that physical infirmities and
characteristics are passed down through
generations, they usually do not acknowledge
that spiritual tendencies have multi-generational
consequences. This accounts for observable
phenomena like the following:

∙A child who is abused
swears, "I will never do
that to my kids," yet, when
he becomes a parent, he
abuses his own children.

In an article in Newsweek Magazine
entitled "Breaking The Divorce Cycle" it was
noted that during the 1970's and 1980's a
million children a year in the United States
watched their parents divorce and these
youngsters, when they became adults
themselves, were the first generation to
experience widespread divorce. Data confirms
that these descendants of divorce have a higher
chance of getting divorced themselves than kids
from intact families [5]. This was certainly not
caused by genes, physical heredity, or chemical
heredity. So what is the problem?

GENERATIONAL HEREDITY

The Bible offers answers to these and
similar dilemmas. Scriptures reveal that man is
body, soul, and spirit. Chemical and
environmental heredity affect your physical
body and spiritual heredity affects your soul and
spirit. The Bible describes the spiritual forces
behind inherited criminal behavior, hereditary
illness, and recurring social problems as
"curses" or "strongholds" of Satan.

God's Word teaches that man's spiritual
heredity is influenced by invisible forces. The
Bible addresses both the negative and positive
aspects of this invisible generational link.

Exodus 20:5 warns that the sins of the
fathers are visited on the children down to the
fourth generation. God said:

"...I am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children
to the third and fourth generations of
those who hate me." (Exodus 20:5)

God established a law of "culpability"
which is "responsibility for wrong or error."
The Bible teaches that while every man will
answer for his own sin, physical, mental, and
emotional weaknesses can also be transmitted to
succeeding generations and become spiritual
strongholds.

THE STRONG MAN MOVES IN

Proverbs 26:2 (KJV) declares, "...The
curse causeless shall not come." When the curse
of shame--or any negative emotion, illness, or
deviant behavior--is passed on in a family there
is a reason for it. Jesus said:

No man can enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his goods,
except he will first bind the strong
man; and then he will spoil his
house. (Mark 3:27 KJV)

One meaning of the word "house" used
in this Scripture is "generation." Satan thinks
that your house--your family and its succeeding
generations--is his house. Left unchallenged, he
establishes residency and expands his base of
operations to succeeding generations. The
bondage grows stronger in each generation,
hence a "stronghold" of the enemy is
entrenched.

In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus explained:

"When an unclean spirit goes out of
a man, he goes through dry places,
seeking rest, and finds none. Then
he says, `I will return to my house
from which I came.' And when he
comes, he finds it empty, swept, and
put in order. Then he goes and takes
with him seven other spirits more
wicked than himself, and they enter
and dwell there; and the last state of
that man is worse than the first. So
shall it also be with this wicked
generation." (Matthew 12:43-45)

When the devil is cast out, he says to
himself, "I am going to return to my house."
The devil desires your house--your generation,
your seed, your children–for himself! If you try
to get rid of your shame--or any other negative
emotion or sin--and you don't have the right
strategy, Satan returns with seven more wicked
spirits and your condition worsens. Satan goes
after the next generation and they will suffer
even greater reprisals from shame.

Marilyn Hickey questions:

"Why is this generation so bad? Sin
is the worst we've ever seen it
because the evil spirits have come
with seven times more to attack.
Whenever there has been a
cleansing, they come after the kids to
make them seven times worse." [6]

The original root of shame is your own
inherent and individual sin. Left unchallenged,
shame will be passed on incessantly using your
"house"--your generational heritage--as the
mode of transmission--and it will grow
increasingly stronger in each generation.

THE CYCLE OF DAVID'S SHAME

Shortly after David's adultery with
Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, we find
similar sins being committed by David's sons.
The "curse" was passed on and the cycle of
shame continued:

After this Absalom the son of David
had a lovely sister, whose name was
Tamar; and Amnon the son of David
loved her. Amnon was so distressed
over his sister Tamar that he became
sick; for she was a virgin. And it
was improper for Amnon to do
anything to her. (2 Samuel 13:1-2)

We find David's son, Amnon, tempted
with the same sin his father battled, lusting for a
woman he could not have. With the help of a
crafty cousin named Jonadab, Amnon concocted

a plan that rivaled David's scheme for
Bathsheba.

Amnon pretended to be ill and when
King David came to see him, he requested
"Please let Tamar my sister come and make a
couple of cakes for me." So David sent a
message to Tamar saying, "Go to your brother
Amnon's house and prepare some food for him."

When Tamar arrived, Amnon was lying
down still feigning illness so she baked some
cakes and placed them before him. Then
Amnon said to the other people who were in the
house, "Have everyone but Tamar leave."

Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring
the food into the bedroom that I may
eat from your hand." And Tamar
took the cakes which she had made
and brought them to Amnon her
brother in the bedroom. Now when
she had brought them to him to eat,
he took hold of her and said to her,
"Come, lie with me, my sister." But
she answered him, "No, my brother,
do not force me, for no such thing
should be done in Israel. Do not do
this disgraceful thing!"

(2 Samuel 13:10-12)

Despite her appeals, Amnon raped Tamar
and afterward told her to get out. When she
refused to leave, he had her thrown out by a
servant. Tamar put ashes on her head, tore her
robe as a symbol of mourning, and went her
way crying bitterly.

When David's son Absalom learned what
Amnon had done, he was outraged and
orchestrated Amnon's death in revenge (2
Samuel 13:21-39). David's shame had passed
on to his children.

Perhaps you, too, recognize that shame
has been passed on to you by previous
generations or that you are passing shame on to
your own descendants.

The question is: Is there any hope for
breaking this cycle of incessant shame?

Chapter Six

Imposed Shame

Shame is the belief that who you are and
what you have done is bad. Some of us have
lived with this conviction so long that...

"We feel toward our shame the way a
person who has been in prison for
forty years feels about his cell: He
longs to be out of it and yet is
frightened to leave it." [1]

Unresolved inherited, individual, and
incessant shame are the foundations of imposed
shame which is a shame inflicted upon you by
others who put you down, tell you that you are
stupid, or say you are not good enough.
Imposed shame says, "You have let us down.
You are a bad person."

People imposed shame on Jesus, for the

Bible says He was "despised and rejected by
men" (Isaiah 53:3).

The seeds of imposed shame are planted
in childhood through circumstances that
reinforce feelings of worthlessness. These
experiences may include religion, identification
with shame-based models of shame, shameful
accusations, abandonment, and abuse.

RELIGION:

Imposed shame is often disguised as
religion. One of the first mentions of the word
"shame" in the Bible is in a religious setting
where Aaron shamed God's people before the
enemy by condoning idol worship (Exodus
32:25).

Shame is advanced by religious
regulations that dictate you must live up to
certain traditions in order to be acceptable. It is
even promoted in some hymns we sing
denouncing ourselves as "worms" and
"unworthy" of relationship with our Creator.

If a church is preoccupied with guilt, the

sermons provide opportunities for moralizing
and criticizing and even prayer time can

perpetuate shame. Professor Smedes explains
that...

"...We feel compelled to make up for
what we lack inside by obeying all
the prescriptions on the outside.
Graceless religion creates the
illusion that if we only follow the
letter of the rules, we will be
acceptable, and that if we fail we
will be rejected and despised." [2]

It is true that Old Testament people

who had personal encounters with God came

away with such feelings, but this was before
God manifested His humanity through Jesus
Christ. The way for sinful man to approach
God was cleared through the sacrificial blood of
Jesus and we can now enter boldly into His
presence. Professor Smedes comments:

"Undeserved shame may come from
religion, but it only gets in God's
way. Religion without grace can tie
shame around our souls like a choke
chain and never offer relief." [3]

IDENTIFICATION WITH

SHAME-BASED MODELS:

Identification is a normal human process
and one of our most basic needs. We all seek to
belong to something or someone beyond
ourselves. John Bradshaw notes:

"With the exception of self-preservation, no other striving is as
compelling as this need, which
begins with our care givers and
extends to family, peer group,
culture, nation, and world." [4]

When we have shame-based care givers,
family, and friends we internalize the shame
imposed by identification with these models.

ACCUSATIONS:

Children face a barrage of shame-producing accusations. "Aren't you ashamed to
behave like that?" the parent questions.
Professor Smedes explains that such shaming
may be done...

"...in bits and pieces, with facial
expressions, chiding voices, and
pious rebukes, without ever saying,
`I disown you.' However, they get
the message across to their children
as clearly as if they announced it in
the newspaper." [5]

Teachers sometimes shame students in
front of the class or shame is imposed by a
child's peers who call him stupid, fat, ugly, or
tease and laugh at him.

ABANDONMENT:

Abandonment by parents or a spouse
always results in imposed shame because you
think it is your fault the relationship terminated.
Feelings of abandonment are not generated by
physical absence alone. Shame also results
when children are told they were unplanned,
unwanted, or what society terms "illegitimate."
A tragic alienation also separates children and
parents who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

ABUSE:

Physical, verbal, and emotional abuse
create a strong shame-base because they
reinforce a child's belief that he is bad, stupid,
and worthless:

"While it is a rare person who
cannot recall a parent's loss of
temper and name calling, the people
who suffer from this sort of abuse
can rarely remember anything else.
The parent on whom they depended
for their first sense of self-worth
gave them the message, `you are bad
and deserve to have bad things
happen to you.'" [6]

An abused child always carries some
expectation that their parents will love them if
they are just a little better and this false
assumption frequently leads to perfectionism.
Their shame is expressed by constantly trying to
prove themselves and measure up to their
parents' standards. Their shame leads them to
accept pain and suffering as their lot in life, to
settle for and endure loveless relationships
because they believe they deserve no better.

"SHE DESERVES TO DIE!"

One of the greatest examples of imposed
shame is found in the New Testament account
of the woman caught in the act of adultery:

Then the scribes and Pharisees
brought to Him a woman caught in
adultery. And when they had set her
in the midst, they said to Him,
"Teacher, this woman was caught in
adultery, in the very act. Now
Moses, in the law, commanded us
that such should be stoned. But what
do You say?" This they said, testing
Him, that they might have something
of which to accuse Him.

(John 8:3-6)

This woman was observed committing
immorality and the religious leaders were livid.
The voice of legalistic religion always says,
"You deserve to die." Bruce Narramore
observes that their response is not surprising:

"...for legalism has been a problem
since the day Christianity was
born...In Jesus' time there were
highly legalistic religious leaders. In
fact, some of the worst legalists who
ever lived were operating then. They
were known as Pharisees." [7]

The Pharisees created long lists of
regulations, inflicted them upon others, and then
imposed shame on them when they fell short.
They became accusers of the accused. This was
confirmed by the story of the adulterous
woman, for it reveals the motive of the religious
leaders was "that they might have something of
which to accuse Him" (John 8:6). Before the
incident concluded, however, their own internal
shame-base was exposed.

The poor adulterous woman trembled
under the harsh accusations of these legalistic
religious leaders:

"Thus this woman symbolizes all the
despised people of the world, all
those whom we see daily, crushed by
judgments which weigh heavily upon
them...She symbolizes all
psychological, social, and spiritual
inferiority. And her accusers
symbolize the whole of judging,
condemnatory, contemptuous
humanity." [8]

Jesus does not deny this woman's guilt or
suggest a rehabilitation program. He does not
argue with the scribes and Pharisees or start
gathering up stones to join them. Jesus didn't
say a word. He simply stooped down and began
to write on the ground:

Then those who heard it, being
convicted by their conscience, went
out one by one, beginning with the
oldest even to the last. And Jesus
was left alone, and the woman
standing in the midst. (John 8:9)

The Word says "those who heard it."
Heard what? Jesus hadn't said anything yet. He
simply wrote in the sand. We don't know what
He wrote, but we do know this--something these
religious leaders "heard" caused them to quietly
steal away. Perhaps they "heard" the voice of
their own shame?

When Jesus had raised Himself up
and saw no one but the woman, He
said to her, "Woman, where are
those accusers of yours? Has no one
condemned you?" She said, "No
one, Lord." And Jesus said to her,
"Neither do I condemn you; go and
sin no more." (John 8:10-11)

Jesus blotted out conscious shame in the
adulterous woman and brought to consciousness
the repressed shame of the Pharisees. Their
silent withdrawal was an admission of their own
shame.

Jesus then told the woman, "You are no
longer condemned." Do you long to hear these
same words? Does your heart cry out for
release from the shackles of shame? Has
religion declared, "You deserve to die?" Were
you shamed by abandonment, abuse, and
accusations?

Then you must persevere in your quest to
break the shackles of shame. Do not be
intimidated by your accusers, even if they are
picking up stones to hurl against you. Before
you finish this study, you will learn how to
break free from the shackles of imposed shame!

Chapter Seven

Institutional Shame

Institutional shame is a type of shame
that is based on concepts of what is considered
right and wrong, acceptable or unacceptable by
others. It results when we are rejected by the
group or when our group is rejected by another
or our culture at large. Institutional shame
belittles you because of your personal
background, your family, where you live, or the
way you dress.

One man who is now a minister in an
international Christian organization struggled
with shame all his life because when he was
young his family was poor. They lived in a
tumbled-down shack on the wrong side of town
and he was embarrassed to invite his friends to
his home. Society considered his family "lower
class" or "white trash" and he wasn't accepted
by his peers because he was from "the wrong
side of town."

This early environment created a shame-base that marked his entire life. Even as a
successful professional, this man struggled
constantly with inferiority feelings. When his
marriage failed, he battled the shame of divorce
and the institutional attitudes of the
denomination by which he was ordained. "You
can no longer be a minister," they said. "You
are a failure."

Institutional shame is sometimes inflicted
by society within the context of simple
transactions like collecting an unemployment
check or accepting charity. The person across
the counter glares at you and you are shamed.
A severely disabled or disfigured individual
may be rejected in some societies because his
affliction is erroneously believed to be judgment
by evil spirits for wrongdoing.

You may experience institutional shame
because you are an ex-felon or you are a convict
currently serving time in prison. In a new legal
climate designed to penalize repeat offenders
society has declared, "Three strikes and you're
out." You may be facing incarceration for the
rest of your life with no hope of parole. You
understand the debt you owe society but you
struggle with the shame imposed by a society
that concludes, "There is no hope for you. You
are a bad person. You cannot change."

Someone reading these words right now
may even be suffering from the most extreme
shame any society can infer–you may be sitting
in prison on death row waiting for your sentence
to be administered.

SHAME-BASED SOCIETIES

There are entire societies that are actually
shame-based cultures. For example, many
Germans still bear the institutional shame of the
holocaust of World War II. Their minds are
tortured with scenes of injustice about which--most likely out of fear--they said and did
nothing. A few Germans carry even deeper
remorse, struggling with the hidden shame of
having actually participated in atrocities against
the Jews.

The treatment of Black people in
America during the pre-Civil War period
generated an institutional shame that still afflicts
that nation today. During the slavery era some
people claimed that slaves were not civilized or
fully human. Other people erroneously
contrived Biblical explanations for such beliefs,
claiming the curse placed upon Ham by Noah in
Genesis 9:24-25 justified Black slavery.

Institutional shame is actually a form of
scapegoating, which as we learned in Chapter
Two, is a shame-based response. Carl Nelson
observes regarding the false claims of Biblical
justification for slavery:

"This was a perfect scapegoat
strategy, for it discharged the guilt
and shame of slavery right back to
God." [1]

When "scapegoating" like this continues,
it eventually results in an absolution of personal
responsibility:

"A person gives up responsibility for
some of his or her actions by
identification with a socially
approved norm of behavior. When
this happens, the individual...feels
little guilt when orders are executed
from that collective will which, in
fact, may go against his or her own
personal norm of conduct." [2]

Thus, unresolved institutional shame in
its ultimate manifestation produces shameless
conduct leading to a mob mentality and
brutality such as that demonstrated by Hitler's
forces in World War II:

"When Hitler's field marshal,
Hermann Goering, sat in a row with
the Nazi criminals and listened to
lawyers recite the specifics of his evil
life, he felt no shame. He leaned
over to Albert Speer and said, `Never
mind, in a few years they will build
monuments in our honor.' " [3]

Goering had succumbed to a shameless
conscience like that spoken of by the prophet
Jeremiah:

Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? No! They

were not at all ashamed; Nor did

they know how to blush...

(Jeremiah 6:15)

SHAME AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Institutional shame is a concept that must
be dealt with if we are to be successful in
spiritual warfare in our communities and
nations. Peter Wagner explains:

"Guilt that has never been dealt with
is an open invitation to demonic
powers. Before we can bind the
strongman, we need to deal with the
sins that have given the enemy a
legal right to occupy. The devil and
his principalities have been defeated
by Jesus on the cross and they would
not be able to stay on unless they
were relying on old invitations that
have never been canceled." [4]

Unresolved shame is one of the "old
invitations" that provides the enemy with
occupational rights and creates spiritual
strongholds over specific geographic areas.

The Bible addresses the subject of
individual trespasses, declaring that all have
sinned and advising us of our personal
responsibility for sin. But the Bible also
addresses corporate sin and reveals that
intercessors can confess collective sin even
though they did not personally participate in the
transgression. Ezra provides an example of this.
He prayed:

"And now, O our God, what shall we
say after this? For we have forsaken
Your commandments." (Ezra 9:10)

Ezra itemized a whole list of
transgressions in his prayer recorded in Ezra 9,
none of which he committed personally, but for
which he interceded corporately for God's
people. He concluded by saying:

"Here we are before You, in our
guilt, though no one can stand before
You because of this!" ( Ezra 9:15)

Just as there is corporate and individual
sin, there is corporate and individual guilt and
shame. In order to execute spiritual warfare in
behalf of our communities and nations we
cannot ignore the issue of institutional shame.
It must become a subject of our intercession and
warfare strategies. As Wagner notes,
intercessors can engage in confession and, even
though they did not personally participate in the
sin or shame, something that displeases God can
be removed through their prayers. Wagner
explains:

"When that happens, God can pour
out His Holy Spirit. It then becomes
easier for unbelievers to hear the
gospel of Christ, repent of their
personal sins and be saved. This is
how strategic-level intercession
paves the way for effective
evangelism." [5]

BATTLING INSTITUTIONAL SHAME

Whatever form of institutional shame
you bear, you are not alone in your struggle.
Jesus endured institutional shame because of
His birthplace. The Pharisees questioned:

"...Are you also from Galilee?...for
no prophet has arisen out of
Galilee." (John 7:52)

Jesus also endured the shame
surrounding the circumstances of his birth,
having been conceived by Mary through the
Holy Spirit prior to her marriage to Joseph. In
one confrontation the Pharisees boasted, "We
were not born of fornication" (John 8:41). They
also accused Jesus of being a Samaritan, a
segment of society greatly despised by Jews:

"...Do we not say rightly that You
are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
(John 8:48)

Jesus came unto His own people and they
would not receive Him (John 1:11). Jesus
battled institutional shame all His life.

A woman named Rahab, whose story is
recorded in Joshua chapters 2 and 6, also was a
target of institutional shame. From these
chapters we learn that Israel’s journey from
Egypt to Canaan, detailed in the books of
Exodus through Deuteronomy, concluded as
they reached the eastern side of the Jordan
River, on the plains of Moab, just north of the
Dead Sea.

Joshua assumed leadership of God's
people to direct the occupation of their

promised land of Canaan and he dispatched two
spies to survey the fortified city of Jericho, the
first target of their invasion. Unlike the venture
of the 12 spies recorded in Numbers 13, the
object of this mission was not to determine
whether they should enter Canaan, but when
and how it should be done.

Jericho, the ancient "city of palms" to
which the spies were sent, was a prosperous and
populous city surrounded by two great walls.
These walls represented the city's greatest
strength and it would be necessary to breach or
destroy them to take the city. According to
archaeological findings, there was a space of 12
to 15 feet between these walls. Timbers were
laid from one wall to the other and houses of
sun-dried brick were constructed to bridge the
space between them.

Built over this gap between the two
walls of Jericho was the house of a woman
named Rahab who was a harlot. There was a
constant stream of visitors in and out of her
house and this probably influenced the spies to
seek refuge there. They presumed that two
strangers would not be noticed and the character
of the woman was of no particular concern to
them. The presence of these men did not go
undetected, however:

And it was told the king of Jericho
saying, "Behold, men have come
here tonight from the children of
Israel to search out the country." So
the king of Jericho sent to Rahab,
saying, "Bring out the men who have
come to you, who have entered your
house, for they have come to search
out all the country." (Joshua 2:2-3)

Rahab took the men to the roof of her
house and hid them with stalks of flax that were
laid out for drying and processing. When the
king's messengers arrived she told them:

"...Yes, the men came to me, but I did
not know where they were from. And
it happened as the gate was being
shut, when it was dark, that the men
went out. Where the men went I do
not know; pursue them quickly, for
you may overtake them."

(Joshua 2:4-5)

After the departure of the king's
messengers Rahab went up to the roof and
addressed the spies:

"...I know that the Lord has given
you the land, that the terror of you
has fallen on us, and that all the
inhabitants of the land are
fainthearted because of you. For we
have heard how the Lord dried up
the water of the Red Sea for you
when you came out of Egypt, and
what you did to the two kings of the
Amorites who were on the other side
of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom
you utterly destroyed. And as soon
as we heard these things, our hearts
melted; neither did there remain any
more courage in anyone because of
you, for the Lord your God, He is
God in heaven above and on earth
beneath. Now therefore, I beg you,
swear to me by the Lord, since I have
shown you kindness, that you also
will show kindness to my father's
house, and give me a true token, and
spare my father, my mother, my
brothers, my sisters, and all that they

have, and deliver our lives from death."
(Joshua 2:9-13)

The two spies agreed to this request and
Rahab helped them escape over the city wall
from a window in her home. The spies told her
to hang a scarlet cord from the window through
which they escaped so they could easily identify
her house and spare it from destruction when
Israel invaded Jericho:

"Some Bible commentators say that
this scarlet ribbon represented
Rahab's immoral occupation. It was
her `red light' and therefore, would
cause no suspicion. Nobody would
suspect it to be a sign of espionage."
[6]

Could it be that this scarlet cord--the
symbol of her shame--would become the
instrument that would effect Rahab's
deliverance?

Having eluded the enemy, the spies
returned from Jericho and declared to Joshua:

"...Truly the Lord has delivered all
the land into our hands, for indeed
all the inhabitants of the country are
fainthearted because of us."

(Joshua 2:24)

A few days later, God parted the Jordan
River and the Israelites walked across on dry
ground. The people of Jericho peered across
their walls to see a mass of Israelites walking
around the city in a silent procession. For six
days, the strange ritual was repeated. On the
seventh day, again the people walked silently
around the city but this time, at the conclusion
of their hike, seven priests with trumpets blew
their horns. The people began to shout, the
earth trembled, foundations cracked, and walls
which had safeguarded the city for years
collapsed.

Remember now--Rahab's house was built
on the walls. What tremendous faith she
demonstrated to remain in her house while the
walls of the city were shaking and crumbling in
the dust. But there she stayed--Rahab and her
entire family--and from the window of their
home fluttered the scarlet cord. Then Joshua

said to the two men who had spied out the
country:

"...Go into the harlot's house, and
from there bring out the woman and
all that she has, as you swore to
her." And the young men who had
been spies went in and brought out
Rahab, her father, her mother, her
brothers, and all that she had. So
they brought out all her relatives and
left them outside the camp of Israel.
(Joshua 6:22-23)

Although Rahab escaped the destruction
of Jericho, she still carried the institutional
shame of being a harlot:

∙She was courageous to risk
her own life to protect
enemy spies.

∙She was obviously
industrious, for when she
hid the spies her harvest
was drying on the roof.

∙She was devoted to her
family and was a wise
woman, acting upon the
information she gained to
secure their safety.

∙She even acknowledged Israel's
God...

...But despite all this, society still
considered Rahab a harlot. When she was
escorted to safety by the spies she was taken
"outside the camp" because no unclean person
was allowed to enter the camp of Israel.

But Rahab did not remain forever in
exile. Biblical records reveal that this woman
became the wife of Salmon, a prince of Judah.
She gave birth to Boaz who married Ruth, who
bore a son named Obed. Obed was the father of
Jesse, who was the father of King David,
through whose line came Jesus Christ.

Rahab is listed among the ancestors of
the Lord in Matthew 1:5. James commends her
for the faith demonstrated by her works (James
2:25) and Paul enrolls her in the hall of fame of
the faithful, declaring:

By faith the harlot Rahab did not
perish with those who did not
believe, when she had received the
spies with peace. (Hebrews 11:31)

The scarlet cord from Rahab's window
was certainly a symbol of redemption through
the blood and the promise of God, "When I see
the blood I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13).

But there was another great spiritual truth
entwined with the strands of this scarlet cord.
This cord was red, and traditionally and
historically this color has marked what is called
"red light zones," identifying brothels of
prostitution and houses of ill repute. The very
thing that symbolized Rahab's greatest shame
became the instrument that effected her
deliverance. That scarlet cord enabled her to be
in the genealogical line of Jesus and to be one of
two women in the famous roll call of the
faithful. Gien Karseen observes that...

"God took her tarnished portrait,
cleansed it and hung it next to Sarah
in the gallery of the heroes of faith."
[7]

In previous chapters we witnessed Paul's
struggle with inherited shame, David
experiencing individual and incessant shame,
and the adulterous woman bearing the imposed
shame of her accusers. Now we find a woman
named Rahab, bound by institutional shame,
who takes the very symbol of her shame--a
scarlet cord--and uses it to effect her
deliverance. While the city of Jericho was in
flames, Rahab led her family to safety. And
behind her, hanging from the window, she left
the scarlet cord of her shame.

If you are shackled by institutional
shame, the concept of this scarlet cord may
seem like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man.
Perhaps you are thinking, "If I can just grab
hold of the truth that cord represents I can
escape my own shame." And you are
right...Before you finish this book, you will take
the very thing that caused your shame and use it
to effect your deliverance.

Do you want to break free from your
shackles of shame? Are you fed up with your
shame-based thinking and responses? Do you
long for your hidden, festering sore of shame to
be healed? If so, then it is time for you to
shatter the shackles of shame.

Chapter Eight

Shattering The

Shackles

∙"You are divorced, therefore you
cannot be a minister."

∙"You committed adultery and you
can never rise above this."

∙"You aborted your baby. How
can God ever forgive you?"

∙"You stole, you cheated, you lied.
God can't use you!"

∙"Your parents said you would
never amount to anything and
they were right."

...These are the assertions of shame for
which psychologists have no answer. John
McKenzie notes:

"Analytical psychology...can lay
bare where the roots of man's
estrangement lie; but it cannot offer
forgiveness...Psychiatrists have
realized that there are no techniques
whereby they can dissipate real guilt
feelings and their associated shame."
[1]

In the last few chapters we examined the
power of shame as it is manifested in five areas
in our lives. Let's briefly review what we
learned:

Inherited shame results from the basic
sin nature which we all receive at birth due to
the original transgression of man in the Garden
of Eden.

Individual shame comes from sins you
personally commit which result in guilt and
condemnation.

Incessant shame refers to the continuous
cycle of shame which is manifested perpetually
from generation to generation when you do not
deal with shame successfully.

Imposed shame is inflicted upon you by
others who put you down and say you are stupid
or not good enough. This type of shame is
imposed by religion, as a result of
abandonment, through identification with
shame-based models, by abuse, and by shameful
accusations.

Institutional shame comes through the
institutions of society. You may be shamed
because of your social, religious, or cultural
background.

By now you are probably saying..."All
right, I understand the problem! So what's the
solution?" If psychology offers no solution for
the shame that binds us, how then do we deal
with our shame?

"Our struggle with shame, then,
leaves us with this critical

question...Is there an alternative to
the shame-producing ideals of
secular culture, graceless religion,
and unaccepting parents?" [2]

HOW TO SHATTER

THE SHACKLES OF SHAME

God’s strategy for shattering the shackles
of shame in your life is not psychology, self-improvement, or group therapy. It is divine
revelation. His strategy is based on His Word.
If you follow His plan, you, too, will break your
shackles regardless of the reason for your
shame, the type of shame you bear, or the length
of time which you have been held captive by its
force.

As we examine these steps, we will
return to the examples of shame used in the
previous chapters--the Apostle Paul, King
David, David’s heirs, the adulterous woman,
and Rahab--to see how this strategy was applied
to shatter the shackles of their shame.

STEP ONE:

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SHAME

You do not effectively deal with shame
by denying or ignoring it. You must boldly
admit your shame. Thomas Oden explains:

"You do not effectively do away with
guilt by dismissing the reality of the
transgressions that caused it." [3]

Psychologist John Bradshaw confirms
this in the account of his own confrontation with
shame:

"Ten years ago I had one of those
life-jolting discoveries that
significantly changed everything. I
named the core demon in my life I
named `shame.' Naming shame
means that I became aware of the
massive destructive power that
shame had exerted in my life. I
discovered that I had been bound by
shame all my life. It ruled me like an
addiction. I acted it out; I covered it
up in subtle and not so subtle ways; I
transferred it to my family, my
clients, and the people I taught." [4]

You cannot blame your inherited sin
nature for your shame. You cannot blame
another person or your rotten circumstances. If
you do this, shame will continue to characterize
your life, responses, and relationships as it did
Bradshaw's. You must fearlessly confront
shame before you can act against the negative
force it exerts over your life. Bradshaw
explains:

"The only way out of the pain was to
come out of hiding--I had to
surrender. I had to embrace my
shame and pain...Embracing my pain
led me to expose my pain, sorrow,
loneliness, and shame. This is what I
had feared doing for so long." [5]

Shame is a signal that something is
wrong. One psychologist describes it as "the
red light on our internal dashboard,"
cautioning:

"When you see the light's feverish
glare, you have a choice to make.
You can either pull over, get out of
the car, open the hood and see
what's wrong; or you can smash the
light with a hammer and keep
driving. The first option leads to
fixing the problem; it makes you
aware of the broken water hose or
the cracked radiator or the low oil
level. The second only relieves the
symptoms. You may be able to keep
the light from glaring, but after a few
more miles, the whole engine might
burn up. How do you treat guilt's
red light? Do you take it seriously,
stopping to analyze why its flashing?
Or do you smash it with the hammer
you conveniently keep in the glove
compartment of your conscience and
let your spiritual motor burn up?"
[6]

King David, whose shame resulted from
his sin of adultery and murder, suffered reprisals
while he remained in an unrepentant state. He
said:

While I kept silent, my bones grew
old, Through my groaning all the
day long. For day and night Your
hand was heavy upon me. My
vitality was turned into the drought
of summer. (Psalms 32:3-4)

You may think you get away with sin but
you really don't and--for sure--as long as you do
not deal with your sin you will never be free
from its associated shame.

When God used the Prophet Nathan to
confront David with his unconfessed sin he told
a moving story of a poor man's lamb that was
slain by a rich man when a traveler came to
visit. The parable aroused David's anger and he
said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who
has done this shall surely die!" A poignant hush
fell over the throne room as Nathan said to
David, "You are the man!" (2 Samuel 12:7).

When David heard these words he did
not try to justify or deny his transgressions but
immediately acted against them. "I have sinned
against the Lord," he said. Psalm 51 reflects his
response as he prayed:

“Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to Your loving kindness;
According to the multitude of Your
tender mercies, Blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, And cleanse me
from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgressions, And my sin is always
before me. Against You, You only,
have I sinned, and done this evil in
Your sight...” (Psalms 51:1-4)

When David repented, Nathan
immediately responded, "The Lord also has put
away your sin; you shall not die."

Jesus dealt with shame at the cross, for
the Bible says that He endured the cross and the
hostility of sinners, "despising the shame"
(Hebrews 12:2). The prophet Isaiah declared of
Jesus:

I gave My back to those who struck
Me, And My cheeks to those who
plucked out the beard; I did not hide
My face from shame... (Isaiah 50:6)

The cross is more powerful than your
shame. Because Jesus took your shame to the
cross, you no longer must live imprisoned by
inherited, individual, incessant, imposed, or
institutional shame:

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his
own way; And the Lord has laid on
Him the iniquity of us all.

(Isaiah 53:6)

Remember the Old Testament scapegoat
which symbolically carried the sins of Israel
into the wilderness? Jesus is the "scapegoat" for
your shame. Spiritually, you can watch your
scapegoat as it is being led into the lonely
hills...There goes your shame! You no longer
have to bear it, because Jesus bore it!

God wants the shackles of shame broken
in your life so you will never again be
condemned in this world or the world to come,
but in order for this to happen you must
acknowledge your shame. If the end result of
what you are doing is shameful, then it is from
Satan and he is using it to destroy you.
Acknowledge your shame before God.

STEP TWO:

ACT AGAINST YOUR SHAME

Acting against your shame means you
must repent of everything that produces it. True
repentance is an inward decision that results in
the outward act of turning away from sin.
David said "I will declare my iniquity; I will be in
anguish over my sin" (Psalms 38:18). He asked
God to search his heart, know his thoughts and
ways, and cleanse him from secret sins (Psalms
139:23-24).

When you act against shame by
repenting of the sin that propagates it, you take
an important step in shattering the shackles of
shame:

∙The Apostle Paul
confronted his inherited
shame, came out from
under condemnation, and
became the greatest
advocate of God's grace in
New Testament times.

∙David acknowledged his
individual sin and repented.

∙The incessant shame
passed on to David’s sons
was reversed and from his
bloodline came our Lord
Jesus Christ.

∙The woman caught in
adultery dealt with her
imposed shame by seeking
forgiveness and changing
her lifestyle. Jesus didn't

deny her shame, but

forgave the sin that generated

it.

∙Rahab acted against the
institutional shame of her
harlotry when she
acknowledged the God of
Israel.

Continue to act against your shame by
refusing to engage in shame-producing conduct.
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, "Go
and sin no more." The Bible says you should
live "as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for
vice, but as bondservants of God" (1 Peter 2:16).
Paul admonishes us to:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by
which Christ has made us free, and
do not be entangled again with a
yoke of bondage...For you, brethren,
have been called to liberty; only do
not use liberty as an opportunity for
the flesh... (Galatians 5:1, 13)

STEP THREE:

ADDRESS YOUR SHAME

After acknowledging your shame and
acting against it, you must address your shame.
David did this. He spoke positive words to
counteract the lingering accusations of shame.
He said:

I acknowledged my sin to You, And
my iniquity I have not hidden. I said,
"I will confess my transgressions to
the Lord." And you forgave the
iniquity of my sin. (Psalms 32:5)

Jesus bore your shame on the cross so
that you do not have to bear it, but even after
you repent of shame-producing conduct the
voice of the accuser will continue to echo in
your soul. You have reinforced your shame-based thoughts for years and now you must
learn how to reprogram that inner voice much
like a programmer changes the data base of a
computer.

You may have been caught in the very
act of adultery, as the woman in New Testament
times, but you must make a decision that you
will not listen to the voice of shame once you
have repented of your sin. The accuser says,
"She is guilty. Stone her!" The intercessor says,
"Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more."
Ask yourself, "Is the end result of the voice I am
listening to death or life?" This question will
help you distinguish between the voice of
shame and that of mercy.

The Bible teaches that confession is
instrumental to experiencing salvation, for if
you confess with your mouth and believe in
your heart that Jesus is Lord, you are saved
(Romans 10:9). We gain other spiritual
victories, as well, by confession:

∙Paul declared regarding his
inherited shame, "There is
no condemnation."

∙David became a man after
God’s own heart through
repentance, and the curse
of incessant shame was
eventually lifted when
Jesus Christ was born of
his lineage.

∙The woman caught in
adultery confessed
regarding her imposed

shame, "No man has

accused me."

∙Rahab broke the power of
institutional shame over
her life through her
confession of faith
symbolized by the scarlet
cord in her window.

Psychologist John Bradshaw notes:

"No matter how good you are at
stopping thoughts, the mind will not
stay blank for more than 30 to 60
seconds. Nature abhors a vacuum so
within 30 to 60 seconds the old
thought may come back if you don't
replace it with a positive thought."
[7]

When you hear the voice of shame speak
to you, address it instead of ignoring it. When
the accuser says, "Shame on you," respond by
declaring, "I do not receive that. Jesus, who
knew no sin, bore my sin and shame so that I
stand righteous before God through Him."

When you really grasp the true meaning
of God's forgiveness, it will be easy to address
shame. David said "As far as the east is from the
west, So far has He removed our transgressions
from us" (Psalms 103:12). God said, "I have
blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions,
And like a cloud, your sins..." (Isaiah 44:22). This
is not self-improvement or building self-esteem
to dissipate shameful emotions. It is a divine
act of God's forgiveness that totally obliterates
your shame.

Even if you are guilty like the woman
caught in adultery, don't listen to shame's voice.
Listen instead to your Savior who speaks
conviction, never condemnation. The scribes
and Pharisees declared of the adulterous
woman, "She must die," but Jesus said, "Neither
do I condemn you, go and sin no more" (John 8:11).
The Apostle John declares:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and

to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness...If anyone sins, we

have an Advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ the righteous. And He

Himself is the propitiation for our

sins, and not for ours only but also

for the whole world...

(1 John 1:9; 2:1-2)

Speak to shame just like you would
address a man standing there with stones ready
to kill you. Answer the accusations of shame
with God’s Word.

If you surrender to shame, it will have
the same effect on you as it did Judas after he
betrayed Christ. Sucked into shame's whirling
spiral, tormented by its reprisals, and alone in
the darkness of night, Judas died in his shame.
You do not have to die in your shame because
Jesus already died on the cross bearing your
shame.

STEP FOUR:

ASK GOD FOR AN INTIMATE
RELATIONSHIP

After you acknowledge your shame, act

against it, and address it, ask God to give you a
passion for Him. The only way you will get out
from under shame's dominion is through an
intimate relationship with God.

When Jesus was led away to be crucified,
all of His disciples turned and fled, including
Peter who subsequently denied Christ three
times. After Peter repented, Jesus asked him
three times with increasing levels of intensity,
"Do you love me?" Peter responded each time,
"You know I love you, Lord!" Then Jesus
commissioned him, "Feed my sheep."

To paraphrase, Jesus said to Peter, "You
failed me, but you have repented and are
forgiven. Now all you need to qualify you to
feed my sheep is an intimate relationship with
me." The new, vital union Peter developed with
Jesus enabled him to become one of the greatest
leaders in the early church, a man so anointed of
God that the mere shadow of his body resulted
in miracles of healing (Acts 5:15).

∙Delivered from his
inherited shame, Paul's
impassioned cry was "That
I might know him in the
power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of his
suffering."

∙Forgiven of his individual
shame, David sought a
passionate relationship
with God. He prayed, "Do
not cast me away from Your
presence, And do not take
Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your
salvation...Open my lips, And
my mouth shall show forth
Your praise" (Portions of
Psalms 51).

∙From David's bloodline
came Jesus Christ--proving
that the generational curse
of incessant shame can be
broken.

∙When the woman caught in
adultery broke her shackles
of imposed shame, she
received a passion for God

that enabled her to live

a new life.

∙...And after institutional
shame was shattered in
Rahab's life, she developed
such a passionate
relationship with God that
she was included in the hall
of faith in Hebrews 11.

THE GOD OF A SECOND CHANCE

Many people let the shame of their sins
and failures prevent them from fulfilling their
God-given destiny. Denominational regulations
propagate this when we refuse to restore leaders
to ministry after they fall into sin. But we serve
the God of a second chance...

∙When Paul broke the
shackles of shame in his
life, he became one of the
greatest ministers of New
Testament times.

∙David was restored and
declared "I will teach
transgressors Your ways, and
sinners shall be converted to
You" (Psalms 51:13). His
work wasn't over. He
broke the shackles of
shame to fulfill his destiny
and in so doing impacted
his entire generation.

•Although David’s household
suffered from his sin, the power of
incessant shame was broken
through the Lord Jesus Christ.

∙The scribes and Pharisees
said the woman caught in
adultery deserved to die,
but she rejected their
verdict and accepted the
words Christ spoke over
her life..."Go your way...sin
no more."

∙And then there was Rahab,
who was so changed that
she was grafted into a new
nation and a divine
bloodline.

Each of these individuals, hostages to the
shame of their past, refused to let shame control
and dictate their future. When you break the
shackles of shame, you come to the realization
that:

...you, being dead in your trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
He has made alive together with
Him, having forgiven you all
trespasses, having wiped out the
handwriting of requirements that
was against us, which was contrary
to us. And He has taken it out of the
way, having nailed it to the cross.
(Colossians 2:13-14)

Years ago, there was a young woman
named Kathryn who--like the woman caught in
adultery–came to know the God of a second
chance. Called of God to ministry at an early
age, Kathryn was powerfully used by God in the
word of knowledge and healing ministries.

In the course of her travels, Kathryn met
a young man--also a minister--and a mutual
attraction developed into plans for marriage.
There was only one problem...the man was
already married.

This young minister left his wife and
children so he and Kathryn could marry and,
like King David, there were no immediate
reprisals for their sin. At first they were happy
and continued on with their lives, but soon
Kathryn noticed a change. No longer did she
experience the tremendous anointing for healing
and deliverance and she constantly wrestled
with feelings of guilt and shame.

Eventually, Kathryn realized she could
not minister with God's special anointing while
remaining in this sinful union. She repented,
asked God's forgiveness, and separated from her
husband. The ensuing scandal bred gossip and
imposed shame, but the young woman
persevered and when she broke the shackles of
her shame, multitudes of people were impacted.

This woman was none other than
Kathryn Kuhlman, whose ministry resulted in
thousands of conversions to Christ and
numerous healings documented by medical
professionals. A tremendous anointing flowed
through her life, as she was gifted with an
unprecedented pure word of knowledge and

powerfully used by God to impact her
generation.

From the time of her divorce until the
day of her death, Kathryn went by "Miss"
Kuhlman. "Don't you think that is deceitful?"
she was once asked. "After all, you were
married and divorced."

"Absolutely not," said Kathryn. "When
God forgives, He forgets and it is as though it
never happened. In God's sight I am Miss
Kathryn Kuhlman."

Kathryn had broken free from the
shackles of shame.

DELIVERED FROM SHAME

IN THE SHADOW OF SIN

Sometimes there are lingering
consequences to our shame. For Kathryn
Kuhlman it meant remaining single for the
remainder of her life. For King David it meant
the death of the child born to Bathsheba.

Chuck Swindoll notes:

"If you have taken lightly the grace
of God...if you have childishly
skipped through the corridors of the
kingdom, picking and choosing sin
or righteousness at will...the storm is
just brewing on the horizon. Though
God's forgiveness is sure, so are
sin's consequences...Don't be
deceived. God's grace doesn't
necessarily chase away the dark
clouds of sin's consequences." [8]

Even though you repent from sin and
address its associated shame, there may be
consequences as you live in the shadows of your
former transgression.

For example, if you are incarcerated and
you act against your shame by asking God's
forgiveness you may still be required to
complete serving your sentence. But even if
you dwell for a time in the shadow of sin, you
no longer must live in the shame of it. As Chuck
Swindoll notes:

Soon after David's loss, he held a new

baby son in his arms...Likewise, God is not
through blessing your life." [9]

In a few years, David and Bathsheba had
another son and named him Solomon, which
means "peaceful," for his birth was a token of
God being at peace with them. Solomon was
also called "Jedidiah" which means "beloved of
God"...

"...signifying that those who were by
nature children of wrath and
disobedience should, by the covenant
of grace, not only be reconciled, but
made favorites." [10]

Even if you are experiencing lingering
consequences of sin, do not let shame prevent
you from fulfilling your destiny.

∙Acknowledge your shame:Whether it is inherited,
individual, incessant,
imposed, or institutional
shame--it will be used by
Satan to destroy you.
Shame will keep you
shackled to your past so
that you cannot move
forward to embrace your
destiny.

∙Act against your shame:

Repent of any shame-producing,
sinful behavior. Repent of any
bitterness or unforgiveness you
may harbor against those who
caused you shame.

∙Ask for an intimate
relationship with God:
...and then rise up from the
shackles of shame to fulfill
your God-given destiny!

Take these steps and the power of shame
will be broken over your life! Make this
declaration right now:

"I repent of everything in my past
and in the present that generates
shame. I no longer bear my sin and
shame because it is on Jesus and His
righteousness is upon me. Give me a
new intimate relationship with You,
Lord. I accept Your second opinion
over my life as You are speaking it
into my spirit right now."

Now accept it...Your shackles of shame
have been broken through the power of the
blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross of
Calvary!

∙Even if you are reading these
words while sitting in a cell on
death row...

...If you have taken these steps and made
this declaration with a sincere heart before God,
your shackles of shame are shattered! As God
said to the Prophet Jeremiah, He has declared to
you: “And now look, I free you this day from the
chains that were on your hand...” (Jeremiah 40:4).
Jeremiah was set free by God to fulfill his
divine destiny. The same is true for you. God
has set you free for a divine purpose: To fulfill
His plan for your life--and that plan is in today
and tomorrow, not in yesterday. That is why
you had to be set free from the chains of shame
that bound you to the past.

Remember, however, that Satan will try
to return with accusations and attempt to
resurrect your shame. You must continually
reprogram your inner computer--your mind and
spirit--to reject shame. Whenever you hear the

voice of shame, immediately reject it and
declare:

"No...My sin and shame are on Jesus. His
righteousness is on me. I reject your
accusations and accept God's second chance
for my life!"

...Then, rise up to fulfill your destiny. If
you act upon this revelation--just as David and
Bathsheba--you will soon give birth to new
dreams and visions. Like David, you will rise up
shame-free to embrace your destiny and impact
your generation because God has declared...

"My people shall never be ashamed."

(Joel 2:26)

Chapter Nine

Silencing The Accuser

There are two forces at work in the
universe which are operative both in Heaven
and here on earth. One is that of Satan, an
"accuser of the brethren," who continually
accuses God's people, seeking their destruction
(Revelation 12:10). The other force is that of
the intercessor Jesus Christ who intercedes in
behalf of our deliverance.

These two forces are constantly operative
in the universe and you will conform to the
spirit of either one or the other in your personal
relationships, your attitude toward others, and
by the words of your mouth. Paul Touriner
observes:

"In actual fact, we are all, not by
turns but at the same time, accused
and accusers, condemners and
condemned...the persecuted became
persecutors. We are accusers

because we are accused, and accused
because we are accusers." [1]

Jesus silenced the voice of the accuser
when He died on the cross because He bore the
sin and shame of the whole world. When you
accept Christ's sacrifice for your sin and shame,
you no longer stand accused. The only way the
spirit of accusation operates now is when you
allow Satan to malign you or use you to malign
others through unforgiving words, feelings, and
actions which, as we have learned, often are a
cover-up for shame:

"Although we try to disguise our
judgments as `constructive criticism'
or `Christian concern', our hidden
attitude may be very different. By
focusing on the faults of others, we
can manage to avoid looking at
ourselves. Sometimes we're even
guilty of the very acts we criticize in
others." [2]

The spirit of accusation says "You have a
right to be mad. Look what they did to you!"
The spirit of intercession, however, responds as

Jesus did when He hung on the cross. Jesus had
every right to accuse those around Him, for He
knew their sins and He was suffering terrible
agony at their hands. Jesus chose to intercede
in their behalf, however, praying, "Father,
forgive them."

Christ continually demonstrated the spirit
of intercession. To the woman caught in
adultery, He said, "Where are your accusers? Go
your way and sin no more." He aligned Himself
with an unpopular tax collector named Zacheus,
dined at the home of a Pharisee, and intervened
when the disciples wanted to call judgment
down through fire from heaven. When Satan
planned to sift Peter "as wheat," Jesus
interceded in his behalf.

THREE LIES OF THE ACCUSER

Our accuser, Satan, constantly
perpetuates three major lies, all of which relate
to this issue of shame which we are studying.
Satan's accusations focus on doubt, destiny, and
denunciation.

THE FIRST LIE: DOUBT

Doubt is a satanic strategy that dates
back to man's original sin. Satan's first
temptation centered on creating uncertainty
when he said to Eve, "Has God indeed
said?...You will not surely die...If you eat of this
fruit, you will be like God." Eve should have
said to Satan, "I am already created in God's
image. But the accuser sowed seeds of doubt
and Eve, Adam, and all mankind reaped a bitter
harvest.

Satan employed a similar strategy in the
temptation of Christ. Immediately after His
baptism with its powerful manifestations of the
Holy Spirit and God's audible voice, Jesus faced
the wilderness temptation. Each of Satan's
attacks centered on doubt as he questioned three
times, "If you are the Son of God." Right up to
the time when Jesus died the accuser continued
this strategy through those observing His agony
who said,"If you are the Son of God, come down
from the cross" (Matthew 27:40).

Satan will also bring similar accusations
against you:

∙"If you are a child of God,
then why doesn't He help
you?"

∙"If God loves you, you
wouldn't have this
problem."

∙"There is no way you will
make Heaven. You just
aren't good enough."

Jesus stands against every accusation of
doubt and proclaims, "You are my child. I am a
present help in time of need. You are loved. If
you serve Me, then your eternal destiny is
assured!" God looks at you through the shed
blood of Jesus Christ and says, "You have all
the rights to the inheritance of My Son. You are
My child and Heaven is your eternal home."

The Bible declares you are assured
acceptance by God through the blood of

Jesus:

Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope without
wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
(Hebrews 10:22-23)

When the blood of Jesus Christ is
sprinkled on your shame-based conscience your
acceptance by God is assured.

The Apostle John repeatedly uses the
phrase "that you may know" in his epistles,
finally concluding with this explanation:

These things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of
God, that you may know that you
have eternal life, and that you may
continue to believe in the name of the
Son of God. (1 John 5:13)

The accuser uses shame to perpetuate
doubt. When you break the shackles of shame,
you will no longer be defeated by it because its
power will be rendered impotent in your life.
You will be assured of your salvation, your
acceptance by God, and your eternal future.

THE SECOND LIE: DESTINY

The second lie propagated by the accuser
concerns your destiny. Satan says, "You won't
be able to reach your full potential. You will
not be able to complete God's plan for you.
You will fall short of your destiny."

Failure, falling short, never reaching the
goal--these all stem from shame-based thinking.
Breaking free from shame brings the revelation
that:

We are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.

(Ephesians 2:10)

God has already determined what He
wants to accomplish in and through you and it
was decided before you were born. God
ordained the path you are to walk, but the
enemy comes through your circumstances, your
failures, your age, and your shame to declare
that you will not be able to fulfill your destiny.

The accuser says, "You are too young
and immature," but the virgin Mary was only 15
when God chose her to mother His Son Jesus.
David was 17 or younger when he faced Goliath
and most of the great revivals in the history of
the church were birthed through children or
young people.

The accuser says, "You are too old. You
missed your destiny." Moses undoubtedly
battled these lies of the accuser. Supernaturally
preserved by God at birth and having received
the finest education possible, Moses was
commissioned to deliver Israel from slavery.
But Moses killed an Egyptian in anger and fled
to the wilderness for refuge from Pharaoh's
judgment. There he remained for 40 years. Day
after day the accuser taunted, "You missed your
destiny. You can't return to Egypt, for Pharaoh
will kill you. You are getting too old. It just
won't happen."

But one day Moses' soul was ignited by
words spoken from a burning bush. God said:

"Come now, therefore, and I will
send you to Pharaoh that you may
bring my people, the children of
Israel, out of Egypt." (Exodus 3:10)

Moses had listened to the accuser for too
many years. He had a whole list of excuses
prepared:

∙"Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh and deliver Israel?"

∙"What shall I say to them?"

∙"Suppose they say, `The
Lord has not appeared to
you.' Then what will I
do?"

∙"You know I am not eloquent, but
slow of speech and tongue."

God answered Moses and said:

"...Who has made man's mouth? Or
who makes the mute, the deaf, the
seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the
Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will
be with your mouth and teach you
what you shall say."

(Exodus 4:11-12)

God knows your abilities and He knows
your disabilities. He is the One who created and
called you and He is the One who will empower
you--despite your weaknesses--to fulfill your
destiny.

THE THIRD LIE: DENUNCIATION

The first lie of the accuser is doubt. The
second lie of the accuser concerns your destiny.
If you stand victoriously against these first two
attacks, Satan subtly markets his third
accusation--denunciation--which means
criticizing and condemning others. He wants to
make you an accuser instead of an intercessor.
He wants you to impose shame on others.

It is true that there are plenty of failures
around to target with our denunciations. There
are many believers--and even great leaders--who have lied, deceived, and committed
immorality. This was true in Bible times also
for the Scriptures detail several "great men of
God" who experienced tremendous spiritual
defeat:

∙Moses: He was a murderer
who fled into exile to
escape Pharaoh, yet called
of God to deliver the
Israelites from Egyptian
bondage.

∙David: He committed
adultery with Bathsheba
and murdered Uriah, yet
this man is called a "man
after God's heart."

∙Jonah: Commissioned by
God to evangelize the city
of Ninevah, Jonah
deliberately headed the
other direction, yet God
restored him and he
preached the greatest
revival in history--the
whole city repented.

∙Peter: After three years of
personal training by Jesus,
Peter denied the Lord,
turned his back on his
calling, and returned to his
previous lifestyle--yet this
man became one of the
greatest leaders in the early
church.

Many denominations today would never
welcome these men back into the church
fellowship. The spirit of accusation says to
these people:

∙"You committed adultery. You
cannot return to leadership."

∙"You took another man's
life. This disqualifies you
for Christian service."

∙"You turned your back on
God's call. You are a
deserter and not worthy to
be a minister."

Medical science used to declare about
cripples, "If they are lame, let them stay lame.
Don't waste time trying to rehabilitate them."
The problem with that approach was that
eventually the cripple's limbs began to atrophy.

Too often this has been the attitude of the
church. We make offenders withdraw and their
"limbs" become atrophied. Yes, there should be
a time of rehabilitation, but there should also be
the opportunity to be used of God again. We
should be like Peter and John at the temple gate
saying to those who are spiritually and
emotionally crippled by shame, "Rise up and
walk!" The Scripture says:

Therefore strengthen the hands
which hang down, and the feeble
knees, and make straight paths for
your feet, so that what is lame may
not be dislocated, but rather be
healed. (Hebrews 12:12-13)

We should strengthen those who are
feeble and whose hands are weak in the battle.
We should make paths for the feet of these
errant ones, humbled and repentant yet still
bound by shame. We should encourage them to
rise up and walk again!

After the incident with Bathsheba and
Uriah, King David sought and received
forgiveness. He cried out to God:

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean; Wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow...Hide Your face
from my sins, And blot out all my
iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, And renew a steadfast
spirit within me. Do not cast me
away from Your presence, And do
not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your
salvation, And uphold me by Your
generous Spirit.

(Psalms 51:7-12)

After David acknowledged his shame
and repented, he received a new passion for
God. Immediately he began to minister to
others:

Then I will teach transgressors Your
ways, And sinners shall be converted
to You. (Psalms 51:13)

David said "then"–when was “then”?
Immediately after he was forgiven and restored.
It was "then" that he began to teach sinners and
they were converted to God.

We often brand offenders with the
"scarlet letter," so to speak, and they are marked
for life, but the Apostle Paul details how we
should deal with repentant, fallen believers:

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in
any trespass, you who are spiritual
restore such a one in a spirit of
gentleness, considering yourself lest
you also be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

When believers fall we are to restore
them. The word "restore" in the original Greek
means "setting of a broken bone." Restoration
does not mean glossing over the sin, treating it
lightly, or pretending it did not happen. Instead,
like a doctor dealing with a broken bone, you
deal directly with the injury. Amputation is not
the solution for a broken bone!

WILL YOU COVER NOAH?

A classic Old Testament story
graphically illustrates these forces of
intercession and accusation. Genesis chapters
6-9 records the story of a righteous man named
Noah who God commissioned to build an ark
and save a remnant of creation from the flood.
This man was mightily used of God and
received tremendous covenants and promises,
yet later on we find him in a wretched
condition:

And Noah began to be a farmer, and
he planted a vineyard. Then he
drank of the wine and was drunk,
and became uncovered in his tent.
(Genesis 9:20-21)

Here is God's man of faith and power,
drunk and naked in his tent:

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
the nakedness of his father, and told
his two brothers outside. But Shem
and Japheth took a garment, laid it
on both their shoulders, and went
backward and covered the nakedness
of their father. Their faces were
turned away, and they did not see
their father's nakedness.

(Genesis 9:22-23)

From time to time God allows us to view
each other's carnal flesh to test our response:
Will we be accusers or intercessors? Noah's
youngest son comes along and exposes his
father's nakedness. Shem and Japheth take a
cloak and put it over their shoulders, walk
backwards, and drop it over their father.

The accuser says, "We thought our father
had the anointing, but look at him now. He is
drunk and naked." The intercessor provides a
covering, for "love covers all sins" (Proverbs
10:12).

Noah cursed his son, Ham, for exposing
his nakedness and that curse continued on to
Ham's son, Canaan, and down through the evil
generations of Canaanites. When you enter into
the spirit of accusation, you set in motion a
chain reaction of demonic forces and begin to
operate under the curse. You reverse this when
you become an intercessor for those who stand
naked in their shame.

The message of this book has brought
deliverance from your own personal shame, but
the question remains, how will you respond
when others are caught in shameful behavior?
Will you be an accuser or an intercessor? These
are two of the most powerful forces in operation
in our world today. One leads to life and
restoration. The other leads to death. When you
find the man of God naked and drunk in his
tent, what will you do? Will you cover Noah?

BREAKING THE FORCE OF ACCUSATION

The revelation in this chapter is the
difference between psychological health and
disorder, the difference between spiritual life
and death. It makes the difference between
failure and fulfilled destiny. It distinguishes a
mediocre, divided church from one that unites
in intercession to impact its community for God.

God is not concerned with a new
building, your five-year plan, or the great talent
your church has to offer. He is concerned that
you say an eternal "no" to the accuser and an
eternal "yes" to the intercessor.

There are those reading these pages who
have lived their whole lives in doubt, not
knowing for sure that they are saved and going
to Heaven. This is a lie of the accuser.

There are those who believe they will not
be able to finish the work God has for them.
God says to you, "I have started a good work in
you and I will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ." God is taking all things in your life--both bad and good--and working them together
to accomplish the vision He gave you.

There are others reading these pages who
are being used by the enemy as accusers of the
brethren.

Right now, you can take authority over
the lies of the accuser and release the forces of
intercession. Make this declaration in the name
of Jesus:

"I turn from the spirit of accusation
to the spirit of intercession. I reject
doubt. I say to the accuser, get
under my feet. You will not
dominate my life. I will rise up to
fulfill my destiny! I put my foot
down on you and declare right now,
I will be an intercessor."

As you made this declaration, the force
of accusation was broken in your life. Receive
your deliverance right now from God. Put up
your hands, praise God, and let the Holy Spirit
baptize you in the Spirit of intercession!

Chapter Ten

Life After Religion

"Caught in the very act of adultery," they
said. "The law dictates that she should be
stoned. What do you say?" The words of the
scribes and Pharisees still echo in our ears and
the image of the accused woman cowering in
the midst of her accusers haunts our memories.

Religion said, "Stone her!" The voice of
shame always leads to death. But we witnessed
how Jesus declared, "He who is without sin
among you, let him throw the first stone." In
one moment of time, the chains of her shame
were shattered...

...It did not take years of psychotherapy.

...It did not take painful group sessions or
a self-improvement course.

...The woman did not have to
delve into her past and dredge up
painful memories.

Instantly, her shame was gone! Freed
from the condemnation of religion that says,
"Stone her, she deserves to die," this woman
was about to discover there is life after religion.

After her sins were forgiven and her
shame shattered, Jesus said to her:

"Woman, where are those accusers
of yours? Has no one condemned
you?" She said, "No one, Lord."
And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I
condemn you; go and sin no more."

(John 8:10-11)

Five powerful words--"go and sin no
more"--capsulizes God's purpose after He
shatters the shackles of shame in our lives. He
heals our shame so we can go, sinlessly and
shamelessly, to fulfill our destiny. He calls us
to life after religion.

OBEDIENT TO THE HEAVENLY VISION

The Apostle Paul--the man who
persecuted believers--discovered this life after
religion. As a self-righteous religious leader,
Paul witnessed the "stones of religion" strike
their blows upon the body of a young martyr
named Stephen and he imprisoned and
persecuted believers. After he conquered the
shame of these experiences, however, he
realized there was a divine purpose for his
breakthrough:

According to my earnest expectation
and hope that in nothing I shall be
ashamed, but with all boldness, as
always, so now also Christ will be
magnified in my body, whether by
life or by death. For to me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.
(Philippians 1:20-21)

Paul's deliverance from shame enabled
him to achieve his God-given destiny, to fulfill
the heavenly vision for his life, to finish his
course with faith.

Shame whispered to Paul, "You will
never reach your full potential, you will not
finish your course. Look what you did. You
persecuted God's people."

In the stillness of the night, shame likely
recreated scenes of a dying Stephen, bruised and
battered by stones, but because Paul broke the
shackles of shame he was able to overcome
these images.

Paul remembered the fact of his sins, but
not the feelings of shame. His shame was so
totally annihilated that he could claim, "I have a
clear conscience...I have done no man wrong."

Paul fulfilled his destiny and at the end
of his life declared,"...the time of my departure is
at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished
the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6-7).

FULFILLING GOD'S PURPOSE

God does not free us from shame just so
we can feel good, although of course He is
pleased when we avail ourselves of the
abundant life He offers. God's purpose is
greater. The objective of our breakthrough is to
enable us to fulfill His purposes.

This reality is exemplified by King
David who, after dealing with his sin and
overcoming its shame, went on to fulfill his
destiny. Acts 13:36 declares, "For David, after
he had served his own generation by the will of
God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers..."
Despite his shame, David rose up to fulfill the
divine purpose for his life and served his
generation by the will of God.

Contrast this with the fate of King Saul
who reigned as the first king of Israel. At first,
Saul was surrounded by valiant men whose
hearts God had touched (1 Samuel 10:26), but
in 1 Samuel 13:2 we find Saul selecting 3,000
men whom he perceived to be valiant warriors
and from that time on things begin to
deteriorate.

The Philistines gathered together to fight
Israel with a formidable force of 30,000
chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and so many warriors
that the multitude looked as numerous as grains
of sand on the seashore. Saul's "valiant" men
scattered and hid in the surrounding caves and
mountains (1 Samuel 13). In the midst of this
panic, Saul took it upon himself to offer a burnt
sacrifice which was against God's implicit
instructions that only a priest from the tribe of
Levi could make such an offering. When
Samuel arrived, he asked Saul, "What have you
done?"

Saul answered, "When I saw that the
people were scattered from me, and that you did
not come within the days appointed, and that the
Philistines gathered together, I felt compelled to
offer a burnt offering."

Saul thought he had good reasons for not
doing things God's way. The people had
deserted him, the enemy was amassed against
him, and God's instrument of deliverance,
Samuel, was late in coming on the scene. But
upon arrival, Samuel reprimanded Saul:

"You have done foolishly. You have
not kept the commandment of the
Lord your God, which he
commanded you. For now the Lord
would have established your
kingdom over Israel forever. But
now your kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord has sought for
Himself a man after His own heart,
and the Lord has commanded him to
be commander over His people,
because you have not kept what the
Lord commanded you."

(1 Samuel 13:13-14)

Immediately after this incident, the
enemy disarmed Israel and made them
materially dependant, for although they were
permitted to have farm implements they were
required to go to the Philistines to get them
sharpened.

The record of Saul's downfall continues
in 1 Samuel 14 where he sought counsel from
God but received no answer, blamed someone
else for his sins, and would have killed his own
son had it not been for the intervention of the
people. Saul's disobedience in not destroying
the Amalekites and their property as he had
been commanded is recorded in 1 Samuel 15.
Finally, God rejected Saul as king.

Although Saul acknowledged his sin, he
never sought forgiveness in the scripturally
prescribed manner. He basically told Samuel,
"Let's go through the forms of worship together
and not let the people know I have been
rejected." Saul never acknowledged his sin or
dealt with its shame and because of this he
never fulfilled his destiny:

"Few men have had beginnings as
bright as Saul's. Physically,
emotionally, spiritually,
professionally--he had it all. Yet
from that high and noble beginning,
Saul sank to an infamous ending.
His epitaph could have read, `behold
I have played the fool.'" [1]

Let me ask you a question: What has
God given you to do in your generation? Will
you be a victor like King David or will you be
like King Saul, who died on a lonely hill near
Beths-shan having never fulfilled his potential
and purpose?

"The city of Beths-shan wasn't far
from where the trumpet's blast had
inaugurated Saul as king. During his
forty year reign, Saul gained no
ground for his kingdom. Tragically,
his lifetime of accomplishments were
of little value. Symbolically
speaking, when you die, will you be
far from where you began your life
in God's kingdom? Will there be
miles of growth to mark the path of
your spiritual journey? Will the
kingdom have benefitted because of
your life?" [2]

If you are to fulfill God's purpose, you
must allow God to break your shame shackles
so–as the woman caught in adultery--you can
"go your way," rise up, and embrace your
destiny.

THE ATTRIBUTES OF A FINISHER

God is a finisher. He instituted His plan
from the foundation of the world, He is
constantly at work bringing all things to pass on
the basis of His will, and He declared in the
book of Revelation that it will be completed.

Jesus had a passion to finish what God
gave Him to do. This ardor transcended even
His natural desires, enabling Him to proclaim,
"My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and
to finish His work" (John 4:34). Finishing was
what motivated Jesus and kept Him going in the
difficult times. His final words on the cross
were, "It is finished" (John 19:30).

Victory over the enemy comes through
finishing, not just trying. When they put the first
nail in Christ's hand He might have said, "That's
it...I'm out of here!" and called for the angels to
deliver Him. But Jesus knew if He did this He
would not fulfill God's purpose. It was when
He finished the sacrifice on Calvary that the
rewards of salvation, healing, and deliverance
became realities.

God determined before you were born
what He wants to accomplish in your life. The
Bible declares that you are God's workmanship
"created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them"
(Ephesians 2:10). God ordained the path you are
to walk, but the enemy comes through the
shame of your past--your circumstances,
failures, and sins--to declare that you will not be
able to finish your course.

The Bible describes four attributes of a
finisher that will empower you to fulfill your
destiny. These are identified in 1 Peter 5:5-10:

Likewise, you younger people, submit
yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of

you be submissive to one another, and be
clothed with humility, for God resists

the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore humble yourselves under

the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt
you in due time, casting all your

care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be
sober, be vigilant; because your

adversary the devil walks about like a
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing
that the same sufferings are

experienced by your brotherhood in the
world. But may the God of all grace,

who called us to His eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after you have suffered

Total commitment to God as Lord of
your life is the first attribute of a finisher. You
must humble yourself before God. A sinful tax
collector named Zacchaeus was willing to make
this commitment and submit to God (Luke 19:1-9). The rich young ruler was not (Mark 10:17-22).

The Apostle Paul compares this
commitment to crucifixion, explaining:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it
is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Acknowledging Jesus as Lord of your
life requires a total change of heart, perspective,
and priorities. It requires exchanging life in this
world for life in Jesus, the riches of this world
for the treasures of heaven. The first mark of a
person who has the "spirit of a finisher" is this
quality of submission to God the Father and the
lordship of Jesus Christ.

ATTRIBUTE TWO:

ASSOCIATE YOURSELF WITH A LOCAL
CHURCH

Your ability to finish is enhanced by
submission to the covering of a local church.
Peter exhorts, "submit yourself to your elders"
and the Amplified Version further identifies
"elders" as the ministers and spiritual leaders of
the church (1 Peter 5:5).

It is in the church, where two or more are
gathered in His name, that Jesus is present to
work signs and wonders and where you will
find comfort and help in times of crisis. There,
you will find fellowship with other believers
who have put the shame of their past behind
them and are moving on to fulfill God's
purposes for their lives.

ATTRIBUTE THREE:

ABANDON ANXIOUS CONCERNS

Next, Peter admonishes to "cast all your
care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).
People who have the spirit of a finisher do not
sit down in the rubble of negative circumstances

and cry. They cast all of their concerns upon
God.

The Amplified Version reads, "Casting
the whole of your care-all your anxieties, all your
worries, all your concerns, (and your shame) once
and for all-on Him" (1 Peter 5:7). The Apostle
Paul says:

Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known to
God; and the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:6-7)

"Be anxious for nothing" means "don't
worry about anything." Instead of worrying,
pray about your problems and let your requests
be made known to God with thanksgiving.
Worry is a negative force, but praise has
positive potency and is the language of faith.

When you face challenging
circumstances or devastating problems, instead
of crying "What will I do now?" raise your
hands and declare...

"Father, You said you would finish what
You began in me. You said everything is
working for good in my life to conform me to
Your image. Now, here's my problem..."

...then lay it out before Him, praise Him for an
answer, and leave it there. When you do this, it
releases the peace of God to guard your heart
and mind from worry.

In 2 Chronicles 20 we find a story that
illustrates this principle. King Jehoshaphat was
in quite a dilemma, for he was completely
surrounded by the enemy nations of Ammon
and Moab. In the midst of these fearful
circumstances, Jehoshaphat set himself to seek
the Lord. He didn't worry or fret, but made up
his mind to seek God about his problem.

King Jehoshaphat went to God in prayer
and acknowledged that he did not know what to
do, but he declared, "Our eyes are upon you."
He also called God's people together to wait on
the Lord for an answer.

God's response came through a man
named Jahaziel who declared:

"Listen, all you of Judah and you
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you,
King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the
Lord to you: `Do not be afraid nor
dismayed because of this great
multitude, for the battle is not yours,
but God's. Tomorrow go down
against them...You will not need to
fight in this battle. Position
yourselves, stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord, who is with
you...Do not fear or be dismayed;
tomorrow go out against them, for
the Lord is with you.’”

(2 Chronicles 20:15-17)

The next day the people advanced on the
enemy, not with man-made weapons of warfare,
but with the supernatural spiritual weapon of
praise. A cloud of confusion descended upon
the enemy, causing them to turn on each other
and battle their own comrades to the death.

Men and women who have the spirit of a
finisher are like Jehoshaphat. They have their
eyes on God instead of the problem. They do
not worry over past, present, or future
circumstances, but pray over each situation in
faith believing that God will resolve it. They do
not remain captive to their shame. They
acknowledge it, act against it, address it, ask for
an intimate relationship with God, and then they
rise up from the mire of their shameful past to
fulfill God's purpose for their lives.

ATTRIBUTE FOUR:

ADOPT A WARTIME MENTALITY

Never forget that you live in a war zone.
Peter instructs us to get serious about this
spiritual battle and adopt a wartime mentality:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil walks about like
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour. Resist him, steadfast in the
faith... (1 Peter 5:8-9)

The days are past when we can take a
causal attitude toward the enemy. The devil is
prowling around like a roaring lion seeking to
devour so don't be surprised when he roars at
you.

Matthew 12:43 indicates that when an
unclean spirit goes out, a void results and it
must be filled or Satan will return with even
greater force. Shame is an unclean spirit and
when you cast it out of your life it leaves a void
which you must fill with the Holy Spirit.

Did you know that a good, shame-free
conscience is actually a spiritual weapon? Paul
told Timothy:

This charge I commit to you, son
Timothy, according to the prophecies
previously made concerning you,
that by them you might wage the
good warfare, having faith and a
good conscience, which some
having rejected, concerning the faith
have suffered shipwreck.

(1 Timothy 1:18-19)

Do you want to wage effective
supernatural warfare? Do you want to keep
your faith from spiritual shipwreck?

Then keep your conscience free from
shame. Put on the whole armor of God every
day to protect yourself from Satan's shaming
accusations (Ephesians 6:11-18). Put up your
shield of faith to divert his fiery darts of shame.
When Satan tries to bind you with shame again,
use the sword of the Spirit of God's Word to
resist his attacks and stand fast in the freedom
you have received!

YOUR LIFE AFTER RELIGION

You are no longer shackled by shame but
you are free to rise up and embrace your destiny
as you:

∙Acknowledge Jesus as Lord of
your life.

∙Associate yourself with a local
church.

∙Abandon anxious concerns.

∙Adopt a wartime mentality.

Make this faith declaration out loud right now
as you conclude this chapter:

"I am no longer bound by shame. I
have acknowledged and acted
against my shame. I have addressed
my shame and it is no longer on me
because Jesus bore it for me. God is
renewing my passion for intimacy
with Him, enabling me to rise up and
fulfill my destiny. I acknowledge
Jesus as Lord of my life. I bind the
power of shame to operate in my life.
I am declaring right now, I will
finish my course with faith!"

Chapter Eleven

Receiving Double For

Your Shame

From the opening pages of Genesis to the
closing book of Revelation, this issue of shame
tarnishes the lives of numerous Biblical
characters. Some of them rise up from the cess-
pool of their humiliation and overcome it while
others--tragically and needlessly--die in their
shame.

For shame has devoured the labor of
our fathers from our youth--Their
flocks and their herds, their sons and
their daughters. We lie down in our
shame and our reproach covers us.
For we have sinned against the Lord
our God, we and our fathers, from
our youth even to this day, and have
not obeyed the voice of the Lord our
God. (Jeremiah 3:24-25)

Shame plagued God's people from their
youth. It marked the lives of their sons and
daughters and affected their livelihood (flocks
and herds). They were continually tormented
by shame. It was with them when they laid
down at night and when they rose up in the
morning.

Captives of the spiral of shame, God's
people gladly received a powerful word from
the prophet Isaiah:

Instead of your shame you shall have
double honor, and instead of
confusion they shall rejoice in their
portion. Therefore in their land they
shall possess double; Everlasting joy
shall be theirs. (Isaiah 61:7)

This tremendous revelation concerning
the double portion is actually rooted in an Old
Testament law that requires double restitution
for what an enemy steals from you (Exodus
22:4,7, and 9). God declares that His people
will receive double honor for their shame and
that instead of confusion there will be peace and
everlasting joy.

Think of the impact of this tremendous
Word from God! God will take the very thing
that has bound you--your shame--and use it to
effect your deliverance:

∙Has shame caused
depression and
discouragement? You will
receive double joy and
happiness.

∙Has shame robbed you of
income because of a lack
of confidence that you are
able to achieve? Then God
will restore your abilities
so you can recover twice as
much as you lost.

∙Everything you lost
through shame will be
restored double to you!

Here is God's Word for you:

Do not fear, for you will not be
ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for
you will not be put to shame; For
you will forget the shame...and will
not remember the
reproach...anymore. (Isaiah 54:4)

You will not be ashamed or disgraced
anymore! God will even heal the memories of
your shameful experiences! In Zechariah, God
returns to this theme to reiterate:

Return to the stronghold, You
prisoners of hope. Even today I
declare that I will restore double to
you. (Zechariah 9:12)

Formerly a prisoner of shame, you are
now a prisoner of hope! You do not need to be
concerned about the years spent trapped in
shame's downward spiral, for God declares:

"So I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,

The crawling locust, the consuming locust,
and the chewing locust..." (Joel 2:25)

A young man named Elisha received this
double portion from God. Elisha yearned to
minister under the same prophetic anointing as
his master, Elijah. When Elijah was
supernaturally transported to Heaven in a
chariot of fire, his cloak--symbolizing the
anointing of God--fell upon Elisha. He picked
up the mantle and began to minister like Elijah,
but with double the power and impact (2 Kings
2:1-14).

God is raising up men and women with
the spirit and power of Elijah who will do things
in the unconventional way--God's way. These
people will not seek reputation and position
because they have nothing to prove. They know
who they are in God. They will deliver God's
message fearlessly because they cannot be

shamed by the enemy's accusations. You, by a
decisive choice, can be one of those people.

In the closing revelation of the Bible,

God addresses shame one final time as He
appeals:

“I counsel you to buy from Me gold
refined in the fire, that you may be
rich; and white garments, that you
may be clothed, that the shame of
your nakedness may not be revealed;
and anoint your eyes with eye salve,
that you may see.” (Revelation 3:18)

This book has provided you with
supernatural "eye salve" to open your spiritual
eyes and heal your shame. You know how to
acknowledge your shame, act against it, address
it with the Word of God, and then ask for a
vital, intimate relationship with God which will
enable you to fulfill your destiny.

When the shackles of shame were broken
in your life, a new mantle descended upon you,
even as that which was passed from Elijah to
Elisha. You did not read this book by chance,
any more than the mantle of Elijah fell upon
Elisha by accident. God wants to break the
shackles of shame in your life, but He has an
even greater purpose for you.

God wants you to pick up this mantle--this revelation of breaking the shackles of
shame--and share it with others. You come in
contact with people every day who are suffering
from shame. You work by them, you live by
them, you shop in their places of business, and
play golf with them at the country club. Some
who are reading the pages of this book are
imprisoned, surrounded by people who are
consumed by shame.

These people are caught in a crisis of
shame. Like Judas, the disciple who betrayed
Jesus, shame torments them as they trudge alone
through the dense darkness.

These people are at the crossroads of
shame, at a point of decision that will determine
their final destiny. Before them stands two
trees. On one twisted, gnarled tree there
dangles a hangman's noose. The other tree is
stained by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You now have a message from God to
share with these people...

"You do not have to die in your shame."

HAS THIS STUDY IMPACTED YOUR LIFE?

If so, we would like to hear from you.
Please write to us and share what God has done
for you through "Shattering The Shackles Of
Shame." Please share with us:

1.What caused shame in your life?

2.What were its effects?

3.How long were you bound by it?

4. How did this book help you break the
shackles of shame in your life?

5.How was your life changed by this book?

6.How do you plan to use this message to
help others?

Mail your response to:

Harvestime International Network

14431 Tierra Dr.

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

USA

Study Guide

This section is designed for individual
and small group study.

INTRODUCTION:

1.What are the purposes of this study?

2.Why is it important to deal with shame?

3.Have you ever struggled with shame? If
so, what caused your shame?

CHAPTER ONE:

1.Define guilt.

2.Define shame.

3.What is the difference between guilt and
shame?

4.According to Lewis Smedes, how does
shame affect us?

5.What is the purpose of guilt?

6.What is the “sorrow of the world”?

7.According to Dr. Tournier, what two
processes are set in motion by shame?

8.Who is the accuser of believers?

9.How does shame prohibit intimacy with
God?

10.How does shame torment internally and
externally?

11.How did shame originate?

12.What three basic human relationships
were ripped apart through sin?

CHAPTER TWO:

1.What is meant in this chapter by the
downward “spiral of shame”?

2.Define the following effects of shame:

Paranoia

Personalization

Generalization

Rationalization

Repression

Condemnation

Helplessness

A shame-based conscience

3.Why does Professor Smedes say shame-based people magnify their flaws?

4.What is the difference between
condemnation and the conviction of the
Holy Spirit?

5.Look up and summarize what you learn
about your conscience in the following
scriptures:

1 Corinthians 8:12

Titus 1:15

1 Timothy 4:2

6.Why is it dangerous to let your
conscience be your guide?

7.What is the only remedy for a shameful
conscience?

8.Why are shame-based reactions initiated?

9.Define the following shame-based
reactions:

Scapegoating

Perfectionism

Self-punishment

Defensiveness

Patronizing

Controlling

Arrogance and self-righteousness

Addictions

Aggression

Alienation and disassociation

Ritual

10.What are some positive benefits of
mistakes?

11.How did the Pharisees and Sadducees of
New Testament times exemplify self-righteousness?

12.How does shame relate to addictive
behavior?

13.Define five areas of shame that can be
manifested in our lives.

CHAPTER THREE:

1.How does shame erect a barrier between
you and God?

2.Name and define the first level of shame
discussed in this chapter.

3.From what does inherited shame result?

4.Explain the ripple effect of shame
discussed in this chapter.

5.Why was Adam afraid when God came
to meet with him and Eve?

6.Complete this sentence:

From shame came b_ _ _ _.

7.How was shame passed on to succeeding
generations?

8.What is meant by the “flesh” or the “old
man”?

9.To what does the inherited sin nature
give birth?

10.List the works of the flesh in Galatians
5:19-21 and research the definitions of
each.

11.Using Romans 7, summarize the battle
that the Apostle Paul had with the flesh.

12.Summarize the change recorded in
Romans 8 and subsequent statements by
the Apostle Paul.

CHAPTER FOUR:

1.What is individual shame?

2.Study the following verses regarding
shame-generators:

Proverbs 11:2

Proverbs 13:5

Proverbs 13:18

Proverbs 19:26

Proverbs 18:13

Jeremiah 17:13

Ezekiel 43:10

3.Why does shame alienate you from God,
others, and self?

4.What Old Testament example was used
in this chapter to illustrate individual
shame?

5.Summarize the sinful acts that resulted in
David’s shame.

6.How can shame affect you physically?

7.Summarize the confrontation between
Nathan and David. How did Nathan
apply the story he told to David’s sin?

CHAPTER FIVE:

1.What is imposed shame?

2.Summarize each of the following which
can result in imposed shame:

Religion

Identification with shame-based
models

Accusations

Abandonment

Abuse

3.What New Testament example was used
in this chapter to illustrate imposed
shame?

4.What was the response of the religious
leaders to this woman?

5.What was Jesus’ response to her?

CHAPTER SIX:

1.What is institutional shame?

2.How does it result in our lives?

3.Give examples of some shame-based
societies mentioned in this chapter. Do
you know of others?

4.How does institutional shame relate to
scapegoating?

5.What is the ultimate manifestation of
unresolved institutional shame?

6.Explain why institutional shame must be
dealt with in order to wage effective
spiritual warfare.

7.Explain the importance of repenting for
corporate sins as well as your own
individual sins.

8.Explain how Jesus experienced
institutional shame.

9.What Old Testament example was used
in this chapter to illustrate institutional
shame? Summarize her story.

10.What was the symbolic meaning of the
scarlet cord?

CHAPTER SEVEN:

1.What is incessant shame?

2.How is shame passed on through
generations?

3.How can you prevent shame from being
passed on to future generations?

4.Why does shame result in a lack of
intimacy?

5.What is meant by the term “heredity”?

6.Are physical problems transmitted from
generation to generation?

7.Are spiritual problems transmitted from
generation to generation?

8.What is meant by “generational heredity”
as it is used in this chapter?

9.How does generational heredity affect
you spiritually?

10.What is the law of “culpability”?

11.True or false? The Bible states that
while every man will answer for his own
sin, weaknesses can also be transmitted
to succeeding generations and become
spiritual strongholds.

12.What do you learn about curses in
Proverbs 26:2?

13.What does the word “house” mean in
Mark 3:27?

14.How is a “stronghold” created?

15.Why does shame grow worse with each
succeeding generation?

16.Explain how the curse was passed on in
David’s family.

CHAPTER EIGHT:

1.List and discuss the four steps given in
this chapter for dealing with shame.

2.Explain how each of the following
Biblical characters used these steps in
dealing with their shame:

Inherited shame: Paul

Individual shame: David

Incessant shame: David

Imposed shame: Adulterous
woman.

Institutional shame: Rahab

3.Apply the four steps discussed to your
own shame and make the declarations in
this chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:

1.As discussed in this chapter, what are the
two forces at work in the world today?

2.Give some examples which illustrate the
spirit of intercession as demonstrated in
the ministry of Jesus Christ.

3.List and define the three lies of the
accuser, Satan.

4.Explain how you will deal with each of
these lies.

5.How can you break the force of
accusation in your life?

CHAPTER TEN:

1.Summarize the four attributes of a
finisher discussed in this chapter.

2.In which of these four attributes are you
strong?

3.In which of these four attributes are you
weak?

4.What specific steps can you take to
strengthen your areas of weakness?

5.Contrast the lives of David and Saul in
terms of how they dealt with their sin and
shame.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

1.Summarize what the Prophet Jeremiah
said about the toxic effects of shame on
Israel.

2.What was the prophet’s message to
God’s people in Isaiah 61:7?

3.On what Old Testament law was Isaiah’s
promise based?

4.Summarize the story of Elijah and Elisha
recorded in 2 Kings 2:1-14. What
attitudes and actions enabled Elisha to
receive a double portion? How can these
be applied to your own life?

5.Specifically, how will you apply the
truths you learned in this book to help
others who are shackled by shame?